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Fandom is complex. It may begin as admiration–for talent, for style, for success–but the twists and turns it takes as it grows or extinguishes, and especially as it is nurtured into an obsession, have been largely uncharted waters for visual artists. There are signs that that’s changing. Ryan McGinley explored Morrissey fans in his recent series “Irregular Regulars,” and now James Mollison’s “The Disciples”–panoramic views of fans leaving concerts–are on display at Hasted Hunt.

Mollison has chosen to focus on those fans whose devotion is most immediately visually apparent. The subjects of his panoramas, which feature groups of roughly seven music fans standing side by side against a white background, were all picked because they chose to dress like the musician whose concert they had just attended. Evaluated for visual punchiness alone, Mollison’s technique works, but his view of fandom is a superficial one–not probing enough to provide any insight into the psychology of his subjects, and not subjective enough for the photographs to merit serious contemplation on their own terms.

If “The Disciples” doesn’t take an approach that allows him to probe into the fan phenomenon, his technique does raise several tangential questions. Many of Mollison’s subjects are clearly dressing like their idols, to the point of wearing t-shirts and hats branded after the musicians they love. But in almost every picture, there’s a gray area, a person or two whose inclusion in the line-up seems to say more about Mollison’s assumptions than it does about the fans themselves. Is a man wearing oversized Orioles gear really emulating 50 Cent, who was born and raised in Queens and now lives in Connecticut? Or is he simply dressing in a style the art crowd loosely associates with “gangsta”? It’s difficult to know if we’re looking at photographs that document idolatry, or photographs that demonstrate Mollison’s assumptions about different styles of dress. It’s also unclear how specific these cults of personality really are. Are Marilyn Manson fans dressing to be like Marilyn Manson, or are Manson and his fans both channeling a similar Goth style and ideal that makes them look as if one is the primary influence on the other? It’s a shame that “The Disciples” only raises these questions incidentally, as a byproduct of what it’s trying to do.

The other work in the show is Mollison’s older series, “James and Other Apes.” It consists of portraits of assorted primates–orangutans, chimpanzees, and bonobos–photographed in a close-cropped style that only reveals their faces. It’s surprising to see Mollison’s work at Hasted Hunt only a few months after Martin Schoeller’s “Close Up,” since “James and Other Apes” could easily be read as a parody of the dead-on facial focus that characterizes the work of Schoeller and so many other contemporary photographers. But “James and other Apes” isn’t really a parody. It demonstrates the photographer’s unusual respect for the monkeys’ individual physiognomies–something that sets it apart from Jill Greenberg’s more exploitative animal work, which looks to other species primarily as mirrors in which to see cute reflections of human emotions. “James and Other Apes” reminds us that, although our gazes at animals normally stop short at classification or amusement, other creatures possess surprising degrees of individuality that only a field biologist or zookeeper normally takes the time to appreciate.

Juxtaposing these images with those of Mollison’s fans makes for a funny gag: the apes look as distinct as humans, and the humans look like mindless adherents of “monkey see, monkey do.” That amusement is short-lived, however. What remains is an impression that the show has shortchanged the fans in “The Disciples,” with the comparison between the series serving to highlight Mollison’s reductionist take on the mentality of his pop idolaters.

“The Disciples & James and Other Apes” runs from June 12 to August 16, 2008. All images © James Mollison.