My Breast For Posterity By Jo Spence Essay

Joan Jacobs Brumberg’s work, The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls, examines how American societal changes are reflected on the female body. Brumberg’s work draws primarily from the diaries of young American girls, giving intimate glimpses into the inner workings of their minds about how they relate to their bodies.

Mann’s series Immediate Family, a collection published in 1992, in which used her husband and children as her subjects launched her into the photography world gained her international recognition. Due to the nature in which she photographed her children, which were

Many people came on September 22, 2015 to witness a young women’s story about how she overcame cultural bias, sexual abuse, and physical danger in order to achieve her dream to become a professional photographer. Invited to speak at Saginaw Valley State University’s Malcom Field Theatre by the president of the university, the title of Eman Mohammad’s speech was ‘Breaking Taboos and Documenting Devastation: A Woman’s Journey’. This title fitted her speech perfectly as a many people came to hear her speech for a number of reasons. Some came to listen to a female talk about her journey in a male-dominated occupation, while others came to hear her life story and how it influenced her passion and the subjects of her work. Eman Mohammad is a significant

In this paper I will evaluate two artworks that share the same theme of “motherhood and breastfeeding.” In the last few years, the sexualization of breastfeeding has become a big issue. This is due to people see breast as sexual objects and think that women are being exhibitionist, and are doing it just to flaunt their breasts in public. Breastfeeding mothers are faced with the public criticism as they struggle to breastfeed their child, although it is the most natural and healthy method of feeding. The first artwork is by Mary Cassatt and is titled Mother Rose Nursing her Child. This painting was created in the 1900s and it depicts a woman breastfeeding her child. The second piece is a contemporary portrait created by Catherine Opie titled Self-Portrait Nursing. The portrait depicts a modern mother also nursing her child. When comparing both of these pieces of art I plan to focus on the beauty of motherhood and the bond between mother and child. In this paper I will discuss the social issue of mother’s being criticized for breastfeeding in public. Now more than ever women’s breasts are being overly sexualized when they are not a sexual organ, but in fact a part of their body used to feed another human being.

Sally Mann’s style incorporates black and white photographs of her children, which are presented with “ordinary moments of childhood, suspended in time and transformed into aesthetic objects, takes on a distorted, even uncanny quality” (Arnason and Mansfield 719). Sally Mann photographed The New Mothers in 1989. This photograph’s most dominant elements are value and space. Having the photographs black and white really enhances the visibility of values. Most of Mann’s work is outside and has a define depth of field to blur out the background and emphasize the focus of the children. This compositional style helps to identify the high and low key values within the photos. The clothes, the reflection of the sun on the girls’ hair, and the girls fair skin are the part of the image that show high-key values, while the rest of the photo in more middle and low-key values. The intense depth of field increases a feeling of space for the viewer. In the photo you can see that the two young girls and their stroller is all in a line horizontally. Behind the girls you can notice they are outside in a open area because of the blurred grass and trees behind them. This photograph’s most dominant principles are movement and variety. The depth of field and lack of distraction in the background of the photo allows your eye to focus and move around with the subjects in the photo. The height of the subjects forms a triangle shape, which is

For this essay the works of Robert Draper, author of “Why Photos Matter,” and Fred Ritchen, author of “Photography Changes the Way News is Reported,” will be analyzed. Though both deal with the topic of photography, their take on the matter is very different. While Ritchen is a photographer who writes on “what professional photographers will be doing in the future,” Draper is a writer for the National Geographic writing on how the photographers of the magazine share “a hunger for the unknown.” Both writers, however, write on the topic of photographers having a deeper understanding of their subjects, Ritchen due to research and practice, and Draper because the photographers “sit [with] their subjects, just listening to them.” In both essays the need for a deeper understanding of the

And for the other half of the assignment, in this part I choose contemporary photographer Sheila Pree Bright. The reason I selected Sheila Pree Bright is largely her work, which not only was amazing but also portraying wide ranges of contemporary society and its flaws. Moreover, she seems to found a way to show what Generation Y’s view on society look like as if it were a documentary kind of like the photos of Dorothea Lange. Therefore, the next paragraph I will talk about, her works and what are my thoughts on them.

Now in addition to her fashion work she was also photographing children. She would go out to Spanish Harlem in New York to photograph stranger’s children. In the 1950s she also found herself increasingly attracted to nontraditional people, people on the fringes of normal society. This new avenue provided a release from the oppression felt in the fashion world. During this time of her life she also suffered from recurring bouts of depression.

Similar to postmodern art, Faith Ringgold's work appropriates unmistakable imagery and other artistic practices to offer basic social editorial. She provokes us to consider expectations for gender and race, and in addition customary desires and estimations of what art may be. Through picture and content, Ringgold changes history to make a place for women like herself in its historical advancement.

 To adequately understand today’s view of a woman’s breast, one must know the background. The main purpose of the breast, otherwise known as the mammary gland, is to produce milk throughout the infant stages of childhood. This being factual, the breast was looked upon as a giver of life in times of the prophet Jesus Christ. Paintings and sculptures delineate this by women having one or both glands exposed while in the presence of a child. The strife people see today with these paintings was never reflected by the artists of the era because the perception was different. Responses of strife weren’t applicable until the Victorian Age in the mid-1800s when women were expected to cover more of their body.

In the essay, “Rereading Edward Weston: Feminism, Photography, and Psychoanalysis”, Roberta McGrath introducing Edward Weston as a photographer who is “strange and his artworks have been dominated by his own writing”. Edward Weston provides his photographic work with the perception through his writing and journals, “The Day Books”, that consists of his life through photography, his children, his desire for women and the health foods, and his hallucinations. McGrath discusses the issue of the feminism in the art world and suggests that men were forbids to viewing art without the sensual connotations, while she didn’t explain how women view men. McGrath discusses how Weston’s oeuvre is in the connection of the feminism and Psychoanalysis. In

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.

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

On October 2, 1949, one of the most well-known and accomplished women in the photography business, was welcomed to Earth. Eighteen years later, she was enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute where she planned to study painting, but stumbled upon a new found love for photography. Years later, this leading lady was offered a job as a staff photographer for the budding rock n’ roll magazine, Rolling Stone. Among many techniques, she is known for her use of daring primary colors and shocking poses. Her work is incredibly respected and her presence is extremely important within the art world. She has developed the ability to balance both commercial and museum-worthy photography and blends the two beautifully. Known for her controversiality, she creates images that are both provocative and beautiful. She has all the right skills and abilities to be able to push the envelope, yet keep it attractive. She is inspiring. She is captivating. She is daring. She is unique. She is: Annie Leibovitz.

American actress Emma Stone once stated, “What sets you apart can sometimes feel like a burden and it’s not. And a lot of the time, it’s what makes you great.” Everyone must accept that they are different in order to release a burden and reach their full potential. One can achieve great things following this rule. Diane Arbus was an American photographer, she lived 1923 - 1971(“Diane Arbus”, 2010). Diane Arbus created acceptance for the “freaks” in the world by focusing on them in her photos, she innovated the field of photography by doing so, and illuminated the world and civilization’s views.