Ellen Morton, Georgia O'Keefe & Anne Brigman
Sunday, December 30, 2018
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Ellen Morton at Silver Bay, Lake George, ca. 1914; gelatin silver print; University of Virginia Art Museum (1989.23.2)
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In 1987 on my first trip to New York I saw a photograph (above) at
MOMA that impressed me and which I have not forgotten. Other variations of the above photograph say Steiglitz's subject was Georgia O'Keeffe
It came to mind on Saturday night when I was reading the
Sunday New York Times (it crashes onto my door at 7:30 in the evening). I read
a fine essay on almost forgotten American photographer Ann Brigman written by
Rebecca Kleinman. The story is here.
What took me back to that photograph of Georgia O’Keeffe
taken by Alfred Stieglitz was this quote:
“She never really fit in whit Stieglitz’s salon and city, seeking a breath of fresh air in Maine. He bought the theories of Havelock Ellis, the founder of modern sexology, that linked artists’ works and their sexuality, particularly concerning female artists . But eroticizing nudes wasn’t her thing. Brigman went back to the West Coast for good, and Stieglitz eventually fulfilled his Pygmalion fantasy with the more compliant O’Keefe."
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“The Cleft of the Rock,” circa 1907.CreditThe Michael G. and C. Jane Wilson 2007 Trust
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There was something else in the essay that to this
photographer needed some explanation. Kleinman points out that Anne Brigman’s
nude photographs are self-portraits.
These were taken between 1905 and 1909. Self-timer shutters were not yet
invented. The only way she might have taken her self-portrait was with a long
rubber cable which ended by a bulb that when pressed tripped the shutter. I am
convinced that someone, and not Brigman, was responsible for that.
In photography lore the person who presses the shutter is
the photographer credited. There are those who might say that Richard Avedon
might have set up a photograph and its lighting and then an assistant would
shoot it with Avedon getting the credit. In 1905 I have no idea what the
standards of procedure were so I am left with a question mark.
There are some that believe that Brigman's photograph The Cleft of the Rock (above represents a vulva in the same way that O'Keeffe's paintings of flowers do). I am not so sure.
Kleinman writes of Brigman and O'Keeffe:
Both women artists defended their non-sexual intentions, that sometimes a flower, and a tree or a rock is also just that.
There are some that believe that Brigman's photograph The Cleft of the Rock (above represents a vulva in the same way that O'Keeffe's paintings of flowers do). I am not so sure.
Kleinman writes of Brigman and O'Keeffe:
Both women artists defended their non-sexual intentions, that sometimes a flower, and a tree or a rock is also just that.
