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Illuminations

Women Writing on Photography From the 1850s to the Present

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Book

Pages: 544

Published: September 1996

Editors: Liz Heron, Val Williams

Contributors: Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Alice Hughes, Julia Margaret Cameron, Gisele Freund, Gen Doy, Maria Morris Hambourg, Rosalind Krauss, Ute Eskildsen, Varvara Stepanova, Dawn Ades, Lucia Moholy, Lee Miller, Therese Lichtenstein, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Olive Edis, Madame Yevonde, Dorothy Wilding, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Margaret Bourke-White, Carol Squiers, Dorothea Lange, Andrea Fisher, Eudora Welty, Anne Tucker, Elizabeth McCausland, Jo Spence, Jan Zita Grover, Berenice Abbott, Mary Warner Marien, Val Williams, Susan Sontag, Catherine Lord, Amy Rule, Tina Modotti, Roberta McGrath, Nancy Newhall, Ingrid Sischy, Nan Goldin, Lauren Sedofsky, Jan Avgikos, Meaghan Morris, Deborah Bright, Laura Mulvey, Susan Butler, Jane Gallop, Karen Knorr, Lucy Lippard, Carole Naggar, Judith Maria Gutman, Coco Fusco, Anne-Marie Willis, Jewelle Gomez, Liz Heron, Susan Aiken, Annette Kuhn

The first anthology of its kind, Illuminations presents a comprehensive selection of women’s writings on photography. It proposes a new and different history by demonstrating the ways in which women’s perspectives have advanced photographic criticism over the last 150 years.
Extraordinarily wide-ranging in its scope, this collection chronicles the role of women in photography as critics, historians, and practitioners. Readers will find Julia Margaret Cameron’s bold description of her photographic method, Rosalind Krauss’s exploration of what the camera means for Surrealism, Margaret Bourke-White and Carol Squiers with differing perspectives on Life magazine, as well as essays by Eudora Welty, Susan Sontag, Lucy Lippard, Berenice Abbott, Dorthea Lange, and many others. Illuminations begins with a short piece on the daguerreotype by Elizabeth Barrett Browning then moves through the avant-garde influence of Dada, Bauhaus, and surrealism, to fashion and portrait photography, continuing with documentary and reportage, the emergence of feminist analysis, and postmodern and postcolonial criticism. Encompassing many varied points of view, this volume offers pieces on individual photographers such as Diane Arbus, Ansel Adams, Barbara Kruger, Edward Weston, and Cindy Sherman along with theoretical work by contemporary writers including Jane Gallop, Coco Fusco, and Laura Mulvey.
An historic anthology, Illuminations shows that women have been writing about photography from its beginnings and have intervened in the key debates of the past century and a half. It will welcomed by those interested in photography, gender studies, and women and the arts.

Contributors. Berenice Abbott, Dawn Ades, Susan H. Aiken, Jan Avgikos, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Margaret Bourke-White, Deborah Bright, Susan Butler, Julia Margaret Cameron, Cynthia Chris, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Gen Doy, Olive Edis, Ute Eskildsen, Andrea Fisher, Gisèle Freund, Coco Fusco, Jane Gallop, Nan Goldin, Jewelle Gomez, Jan Zita Grover, Judith Mara Gutman, Maria Morris Hambourg, Liz Heron, Alice Hughes, Karen Knorr, Rosalind Krauss, Annette Kuhn, Dorothea Lange, Therese Lichtenstein, Lucy Lippard, Catherine Lord, Mary Warner Marien, Elizabeth McCausland, Roberta McGrath, Lee Miller, Tina Modotti, Lucia Moholy, Laura Mulvey, Carole Naggar, Nancy Newhall, Amy Rule, Lauren Sedofsky, Ingrid Sischy, Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Susan Sontag, Jo Spence, Carol Squiers, Varvara Stepanova, Anne Tucker, Eudora Welty, Dorothy Wilding, Val Wiliams, Anne-Marie Willis, Madame Yevonde

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Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information

Author/Editor Bios

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Liz Heron’s writings on photography have appeard in Camerawork, Creative Camera and Aperture. She is the author of Streets of Desire and A Red River.
Val Williams is an independent writer and curator. She is the author of Warworks and The Other Observers.

Table Of Contents

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Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

The Nineteenth Century in Europe

On the Daguerrotype / Elizabeth Barrett Browning 2

A Lady Photographer who Never Photographs Men / Alice Hughes 3

Annals of My Glass House / Julia Margaret Cameron 8

Photography During the July Monarchy 1830-1848 / Gisele Freund 14

The Camera Against the Paris Commune / Gen Doy 21

Extending the Grand Tour / Maria Morris Hambourg 32

Tracing Nadar / Rosalind Krauss 37

New Visions - The Avant-Gardes and After

Germany: The Weimar Republic / Ute Eskildsen 53

Photomontage Varvara Stepanova 64

The Supremacy of the Message - Dada / Dawn Ades 66

A Hundred Years of Photography / Lucia Moholy 70

I Worked with Man Ray / Lee Miller 74

The Photographic Conditions of Surrealism / Rosalind Krauss 76

A Mutable Mirror: Claude Cahun / Therese Lichtenstein 91

The Armed Vision Disarmed - Radical Formalism from Weapon to Style / Abigail Solomon-Godeau 96

Distant Voices: Fashion and Portraiture in the Studio in the Inter-War Years

Olive Edis: Photography, 1914 119

Exhibitions and Commercial Work / Madame Yevonde 121

In Pursuit of Perfection / Dorothy Wilding 125

Early Years / Louise Dahl-Wolfe 127

Pictures and Stories: Documentary and Reportage in North America

Life Begins / Margaret Bourke-White 133

Looking at Life / Carol Squiers 140

The Assignment I'll Never Forget / Dorothea Lange 151

A Crisis in the Intimate / Andrea FIsher 161

One Time, One Place / Eudora Welty 165

The Photo League / Anne Tucker 165

Documentary Photography / Elizabeth McCausland 170

The Politics of Photography / Jo Spence 174

The Seige of St Malo / Lee Miller 178

Star Wars: The Photography as Polemicist in Vietnam / Jan Zita Grover 185

History Lessons

Photography at the Crossroads / Berenice Abbott 203

What Shall We Tell the Children? Photography and Its Text (Books) / Mary Warner Marien 207

Crowned with Thorns: Creative Camera 1965-1978 / Val Williams 223

On Photography / Susan Sontag 230

On Photographers

What Becomes a Legend Most: The Short, Sad Career of Diane Arbus / Catherine Lord 237

Tina Modotti: Letters to Edward Weston / Amy Rule 251

On Photography / Tina Modotti 260

Re-reading Edward Weston - Feminism, Photography and Psychoanalysis / Roberta McGrath 261

Ansel Adams: The Eloquent Light / Nancy Newhall 270

Good Intentions / Ingrid Sischy 272

Witkin's Others / Cynthia Chris 283

The Other Side / Nan Goldin 291

Time Exposure: The Photographs of Patrick Faigenbaum / Lauren Sedofsky 295

Cindy Sherman: Burning Down the House / Jan Avgikos 300

Postmodernisms and the Politics of Looking

Winning the Game When the Rules Have Been Changed: Art Photography and Postmodernism / Abigail Solomon-Godeau 307

Two Types of Photography Criticism Located in Relation to Lynn Silverman's Series / Meaghan Morris 319

Of Mother Nature and Marlboro Men: An Inquiry into the Cultural Meanings of Landscape Photography / Deborah Bright 333

Dykes in Context: Some Problems in Minority Representation / Jan Zita Grover 348

Dialogue with Spectatorship: Barbara Kruger and Victor Burgin / Laura Mulvey 377

Between Frames / Susan Butler 386

The Pleasure of the Phototext / Jane Gallop 394

Interview: Fetishism of Black-and-White and the Vulgarity of Colour 403

Decolonizing the Image

Partial Recall / Lucy Lippard 413

The Unveiled: Algerian Women / Carole Naggar 422

Essential Differences, Photographs of Mexican Women / Coco Fusco 434

A Strategy of Appearances - The Australian Bicentenary / Anne-Marie Willis 442

Showing Our Faces - A Century of Black Women Photographed / Jewelle Gomez 448

Memories and Fictions

Gateway to a Labyrinth / Liz Heron 457

Isak Dinesen and Photo/Graphic Recollection / Susan H. Aiken 460

Remembrance / Annette Kuhn 471

Notes 479

Additional Notes on the Contributors 513

Copyrights and Permissions 518

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Paper ISBN: 978-0-8223-1792-0 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8223-1784-5 /

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