[Note: The Online Photographer's M.C., majordomo, and Chief Bottlewasher, Mike J., just had his eye operated on and is recuperating. Big rule during recovery: no screens, no reading, lie flat and stare at the ceiling. He got an Echo and is listening to Audible books! Meanwhile, for your amusement and edification, a few bon mots from other writers and photographers. One will be published every day while Mike’s away.]
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Gertrude Käsebier, Blessed Art Thou among Women
"Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934) was probably the most successful American portrait photographer in the first decade of the twentieth century. Like Julia Margaret Cameron, Käsebier came to photography later in life, first as a hobbyist, then as an art photographer, and finally as a sought-after portraitist. Her photographs of women sometimes relied on implicit storytelling in the manner of Lady Haywarden. Blessed Art Thou among Women (1899) shows a mother about to send her child into the world. The woman-and-child theme, prominent in Käsebier's photography, was often depicted with the mother helping the child negotiate the passage into life, rather than holding the child close. The photograph, with its religious overtones, is a portrait study of Agnes Rand Lee and her daughter Peggy. A print of the Annunciation (when the Angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary) hangs on the wall behind the figures. Agnes Lee is dressed in loose, flowing robes, as advocated by British artist and reformer William Morris (1834–1896). Soon after the photograph was made, Peggy Lee died. Agnes then posed as the sorrowful mother in Käsebier's 1904 photograph The Heritage of Motherhood.
"Käsebier's photographs were honored abroad, and she was elected to The Linked Ring in 1900. Blessed Art Thou among Women was included in the first exhibition of the Photo-Secession, and her work was showcased in the first issue of Camera Work (January 1903)."
—Mary Werner Marien, from Photography: A Cultural History, 4th Edition, p. 189
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