ABSTRACT
'Postmodern' came into common use in the 1970s to describe the attitude that rejected the prevailing artistic ideology of universal and objective truth. Artists subverted the photographic image and its use in media culture. The recognition of a gradual shift away from the attitude that characterised the Modernist period, and specifically its belief in a fundamental truth, saw the concept of the postmodern enter widespread use from the early 1970s. Poststructuralist theory informed the new subversive tone, too, as art was used as a tool of deconstruction. An important facet was appropriation - where artists adopted the form or style of their subject in order to undermine its meaning. The deconstruction of the ways in which women were represented in the media was one of the most important areas of Postmodernism. Feminist artists interrogated the role of television and the illustrated press in manufacturing beliefs about gender and sexuality, and used photographs as tools to enact change.
