I've been thinking about portraiture and the many different forms it can take. The above image is one from Hank Willis Thomas' series "Branded", which explores the commodification of the Afican-American male body, especially in sports and advertising. Thomas references real advertisements that subliminally play on race, class, gender, etc to sell products, and by re-creating and putting his images in these contexts, exposes it. The above image from the series in particular reminds me of Louis Agassiz's early slave dagguerreotypes, full-frontal and side portraits remniscient of mugshots that were meant to 'catalogue' slaves from various African tribes, and illustrate their status based on the physical. Whether intended or not, Willis' above image can be interpreted as a response to these images.
[http://hankwillisthomas.com/splash.html]
Also, I was recently reading a relevant article regarding Annie Leibovitz, famed Vogue and Vanity Fair photographer, and a cover that she recently shot that has caused a lot of backlash because of the racist implications (although it should be noted that the original image in question is war propaganda)...what do you think?
http://gawker.com/5004715/time-for-leibovitz-to-confess
I would guess that you are right about Hank Willis Thomas and Lous Agassiz. In fact Hank WT's mother is Deborah Willis who is a scholar and photographer who has worked quite a bit on the black body and it's depictions. Included in her work is a book entitled, "The Black Femal Body: A Photographic History" which includes a discussion of Louis Agassiz's images.
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