Feminine Photography

Homage to Ellen von Unwerth

Last year, I joined a photography group specifically for women and non-binary photographers. A younger, more shrilly principled Beth would have objected to such a thing as exclusionary, but a lonely, pandemic-addled Beth was desperate for companionship--and opportunities to show her exciting new work. Several of my photos were accepted for a show through this group, virtual now, to be presented in person later:  https://balladofourchangingworld.weebly.com/artists.html

We have an assignment for each week. Last year, the assignments were based on themes. Constrained by the limitations of the pandemic, some of the themes inspired me to create self-portraits, an entirely new art form for me. This year, our assignments are to create a response to a particular photo created by a woman or non-binary photographer. Many of the source photos have been portraits, so I have created self-portraits that responded to these.

I wanted to make responses to the source photos that were not mere imitations, but that incorporated some of my own creativity. One of the ways I accomplished this was by turning myself upside down. Frustrated by my inability to play with my friends in the aerial studio, I had purchased a portable aerial rig and set it up in the living room for Zoom classes. I found that I was unable to hold myself upside-down in the lyra well enough to take a successful photograph in the dimness of indoor light, but that, with a cabled remote trigger, I could make it happen in the sling (with a sufficiently high ISO). 

Seeing the weekly example photos presented has been an amazing experience. While I had previously gone to exhibits featuring well-known women photographers such as Dorothea Lange and Diane Arbus, I had never explored female photography, from all over the world, in this way before. A past Beth would never have wanted to acknowledge this, but these works are qualitatively different, and exploring them has brought me to a new understanding of myself and my place in the world as a woman.

I was particularly inspired by the unabashed femininity of Ellen von Unwerth's work. Acculturated into 1980's feminism, I had been taught that expressions of femininity were a service to the patriarchy and, as such, were frowned upon and discouraged. It has only been in my 50's that I have begun to feel more comfortable expressing the femininity that has always been in me. I had much fun creating my response to her image of Rose McGowan, Opulence: https://weheartit.com/entry/321104