In Eight Girls Taking Pictures, Whitney Otto has woven a well-crafted
tapestry of vibrant, moving, historically based short stories about women ahead
of their time and how the complexities of their lives enabled them to make distinct
and wholly original contributions to the world of photography.
The stories span from 1910 through the 1990s and are set in locales from the United States
to Europe and South America. Each story features a richly textured
character and explores how specific facets of a woman's life can influence her vision,
craft and ambition.
The Author's Note
indicates that these stories were inspired by Otto's (How to Make an American Quilt) affinity
for the work of six real women photographers from around the world: Imogen Cunningham, Madame Yevonde, Tina Modotti, Lee Miller, Grete Stern, and Ruth Orkin. Two additional stories are purely a product
of the author's imagination, though one can make inferences to other noted female
photographers. What Otto has done--with
great skill and care--is craft a collage of stories using a factual basis of reality
as a launch pad to creatively explore, via fiction, the undocumented parts of
each woman's life and career.
Photography is all about
perception, seeing the world through a unique vantage point. These stories
evolve in a similar fashion, as they seek to reveal and understand how these
women pursued their passion for photography through adversity, motherhood and the challenges of love and romantic
relationships. The stories all share
photography as a common thread and the medium is explored via aspects of
photochemistry, black-and-white versus color, photojournalism/war, botanical,
nudes, still life, advertising/fashion, travel and photographing everyday domesticity.
But a deeper thread that emerges is the male
influence on each of these women's lives, in particular the often complicated
relationships between fathers and daughters. Many of the fathers of these photographers were progressive for their
time, and it was that paternal bond and influence (however positive or
negative) that encouraged these women to seriously pursue photography as a means
of self-expression and ultimately, a fine art form.
You don't need to be a
photographer or to be familiar with some of the most prominent female image-makers
of the 20th Century to appreciate and admire Eight Girls Taking Pictures. But once you finish reading this
well-rendered collection, you'll more than likely be inspired to learn
more.
Scribner, $25.00,
Hardcover, 9781451682694, 352 pp
Publication Date: November
6, 2012