Someone from the transgender resource group sent met a link to this episode from the The Brain Series. This is about gender identity. For many reasons this has fascinated me, not only because, as was found out, I have gender dysphoria too, but also because Identity just fascinates me.
Month: July 2015
Every Photo is a story: the photos of Frances Benjamin Johnston
I recently got five links from the Library of Congress for the series Every Photo is a story. In this series Kristi Finefield, reference librarian in the Prints and Photographs Division, and Sam Watters, architectural and landscape historian, take a look at the photos made Frances Benjamin Johnston, (1864–1952), one of the first female photo-journalist who rose to prominence. She was an expert at making hand-painted photographs. She was a champion of the City Beautiful Movement to restore beauty to an industrial America through garden design and was very well connected. Such beautification could thus promote a harmonious social order that would increase the quality of life.
These two go together as she had her photographer ‘improved’ to the wishes of the customers by having them painted. Even then reality sometimes needed to be improved upon. How this worked and why this was done will be told during the series.
Watters has worked with the library of congress to examine no less that 1100 of Frances Benjamin Johnston’s photos, which she donated to the Library of Congress.
Library of Congess: Every story is a Photo:
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/results.php?mode=s&cat=69
Part 1: Start to Read a Photograph
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6730
Part 2: Get to Know the Photographer
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6731
Part 3: Consider How the Photos Were Made
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6732
Part 4: Interpret Stories You Discover
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6733
Part 5: Explore the Photographer’s Era
http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6734
For fun, I made my own look alike picture.. It is made using second life.
More links
Frances Benjamin Johnston
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Benjamin_Johnston
Sam Watters’ book.
http://www.traditional-building.com/Previous-Issues-12/AugustBR12Gardens.html
http://www.designersandbooks.com/blog/author-qa-sam-watters-gardens-beautiful-america
City Beautiful movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Beautiful_movement
Library of congress
https://www.loc.gov/
Another story: Trinity
When talking about collages, a friend of mine asked me why I think that making a pictorial story would work because as far as he knows most imagery, a catch all phrase for pictures, photographs and other ways to display (un)reality, is often one single depiction of a single event. Like a snapshot or a painting of, say, Mona Lisa.
Perhaps he is right, but then I find it fun to work some kind of story into a depiction or playing around with imagery that is just something more that just one picture.
So here is another one that I worked upon. It is called Trinity.
Now I personally think that pictures should tell their own story.. or at least should inspire or fascinate, without needing words to explain more, as it is probably that the words will not always be connected to a picture. Perhaps I should looking into that.
This picture was inspired by the fact that in Second Life you can make a copy of yourself that looks exactly the same as another avatar, however through behavior and other ways of being they can be different and perceived and treated differently by others.
Identity: fatherland
This is the first of the pictures I made to explore identity, gender and the way we are conditioned to look at people.
It is a female avatar with a female skin with a beard in a military outfit, Then military outfit is both modern and of world war II vintage. There are more references towards world war II.
Merit Coba 
You must be logged in to post a comment.