Sally Mann : The New Mothers

You Have Seen Their Faces by Margaret Bourke-White and Erskine Caldwell is a photo documentary of life in the South during the Great Depression. After reading You Have Seen Their Faces along with critiques of it by Rabinowitz and Snyder, I found myself more interested in the topic of how motherhood was depicted in the book. Rabinowitz brought up that middle class women felt the need to regulate the poor women because they weren 't feminine enough or motherly enough which is the main attitude involved in slumming. By observing Margaret Bourke-White’s photos I found two distinct classes of these types of images: positive and negative. I was curious as to the deeper meanings behind these two classes of photos and what this meant about Bourke-White’s perspective of her subjects. Another point of interest is how and if the captions of these photos of mothers cause the images to be interpreted differently.

Martha Ballard, while to many the messiah of Maine, might have been more of a parading pestilence as she moved throughout the town giving treatment and illness, one and the same. Throughout Martha Ballard’s diary and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s transcription of such, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, various examples of transmission can be seen with some cases leaving individuals dead and families destroyed. Such sicknesses included Dysentery, Scarlet Fever, and unidentified illnesses. While Martha brought happiness through births and lifesaving procedures, she also brought along hidden pestilence. The Ballard family was instrumental in the spread of disease throughout their town, Hallowell. Due to lacking medical knowledge and no

In Jennifer Baichwal’s The True Meaning of Picture, she focused on the subject of American photographer Shelby Lee Adams’ works. Adams’ pieces emphasize the culture people in poverty from the Appalachian Mountains. Baichwal also spends some time focusing on the controversy of the photographer’s images. The documentary shows direct quotes from Adams himself, the subjects of his pictures, the subjects’ family, and even art critiques. The film collides the views of all these people so that we may learn more about the Appalachian people. Throughout the course of the documentary, the

To begin with, Lange helped perceive the poor living conditions of the 1900’s through her photo of the migrant mother and three children. For instance, Lange with her photo of the migrant mother helped raise awareness, for the federal government gave the pea pickers camp, where the migrant mother had been distinguished, “twenty thousand pounds of food”. (Starr 48) The photo of the unfortunate pea pickers helped people realize how hopeless they really were. This creating a willingness to help. Showing Lange's photography ability to create empathy through a simple photo. In addition, the mother was so desperate for help that when the picture was taking place, “there she sat in the lean-to-tent” motionless. (Starr 47) The migrant mother was so

Catherine Angel’s Bessie and Nadine (2000) is a toned gelatin silver print on paper. The photographer, Catherine Angel, is currently a professor for the Department of Art at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, but most importantly, she is a mother. In fact, her daughters are the subjects shown in this photograph. Catherine Angel is experienced in Black and White Large Format Photography, Mixed Media Collage, Handmade Books and Color works. Her work has been exhibited in more than 400 exhibits. In this black and white photograph, Bessie and Nadine, there are two young girls of color are interlocked in fetal position within a dirt hole in the ground. There is grass on the rim of the photograph and a scarce amount of living plants around this

The characters Sherman portrays, lighting, clothing and expressions are cliché of what is present in cinema, so much that viewers of her work have told Sherman that they ‘remember the movie’ that the image is derived from, yet Sherman having no film in mind at all.[iv] Thus showing that her word has a pastiche of past cinematic genres, and how women are portrayed in cinema and photography and how Sherman has manipulated the ‘male gaze’ around her images so they become ironic and cliché.

Her most well know piece Migrant Mother which was of Florence Owens Thompson. The photograph shows a worn out mother with her two children's heads in her shoulders, and a baby in her lap.

Before starting this project, I knew very little about photography, photographers, or exactly how much impact photographical images have had on our society. I have never taken a photography class, or researched too in depth about specific pictures or photographers. This project has allowed me to delve deeper into the world of photography in order to understand just how much influence pictures can have over society’s beliefs, emotions, and understandings’. I have have chosen two highly influential photographers, Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange, who I have found to both resonate with me and perfectly capture human emotions in way that moves others.

The settings and environments of the documentary Painted Babies position the viewer to respond to how beauty

Sally Mann photographs the things that she is closest to. “The things that are close to you are the things you can photograph the best, unless you photograph what you love, you’re

No other artist has ever made as extended or complex career of presenting herself to the camera as has Cindy Sherman. Yet, while all of her photographs are taken of Cindy Sherman, it is impossible to class call her works self-portraits. She has transformed and staged herself into as unnamed actresses in undefined B movies, make-believe television characters, pretend porn stars, undifferentiated young women in ambivalent emotional states, fashion mannequins, monsters form fairly tales and those which she has created, bodies with deformities, and numbers of grotesqueries. Her work as been praised and embraced by both feminist political groups and apolitical mainstream art. Essentially, Sherman's photography is part of the culture and

The black lines that seem to frame the woman into a sort of foreground are also present in the implied background, thus melding them into a singular seemingly flat space. The blending of large areas of color leave the space open, and the intent lines of color are the only implication of space or form. “Space is made ambiguously expansive by means of the slight blurs and partial erasures in and around the figures,” (Ashton). This juxtaposition of open and defined spaces easily mirrors the wily nature of women to contain some sort of depth, while at the same time being of shallow character. Lewison makes note of this contrast saying of the woman that, “she is self-consciously seductive, challenging the male to approach while at the same time remaining aloof,” (146). Although there is an understood figure and a somewhat implied background, the work still has the ability to be flat at one glance and especially deep upon another.

In her essay, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Margaret Fuller discusses the state of marriage in America during the 1800‘s. She is a victim of her own knowledge, and is literally considered ugly because of her wisdom. She feels that if certain stereotypes can be broken down, women can have the respect of men intellectually, physically, and emotionally. She explains why some of the inequalities exist in marriages around her. Fuller feels that once women are accepted as equals, men and women will be able achieve a true love not yet known to the people of the world.

Undoubtedly, due to the class difference during the eighteenth century, shelly’ feeling towards society was extremely biased. Because the life for women was very hard, I think Mary was feeling so bad about how women treated in the society as opposed to men. They did not have all the legal rights that man did. Women should be educated in order to give them the opportunity to contribute to society.Undoubtedly, due to the class difference during the eighteenth century, shelly’ feeling towards society was extremely biased. Because the life for women was very hard, I think Mary was feeling so bad about how women treated in the society as opposed to men. They did not have all the legal rights that man did. Women should be educated in order to give

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.