Edited with text by Roxana Marcoci. Preface by Helen Kornblum, Kathy Halbreich. Text by Dana Ostrander, Caitlin Ryan, Phil Taylor.
How have women artists used photography as a tool of resistance? Our Selves explores the connections between photography, feminism, civil rights, Indigenous sovereignty and queer liberation
Spanning more than 100 years of photography, the works in Our Selves range from a turn-of-the-century photograph of racially segregated education in the United States, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, to a contemporary portrait celebrating Indigenous art forms, by the Chemehuevi artist Cara Romero. As the title of this volume suggests, Our Selves affirms the creative and political agency of women artists. A critical essay by curator Roxana Marcoci asks the question “What is a Feminist Picture?” and reconsiders the art-historical canon through works by Claude Cahun, Tina Modotti, Carrie Mae Weems, Catherine Opie and Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, among others. Twelve focused essays by emerging scholars explore themes such as identity and gender, the relationship between educational systems and power, and the ways in which women artists have reframed our received ideas about womanhood. Published in conjunction with a groundbreaking exhibition of photographs by women artists—drawn exclusively from MoMA's collection, thanks to a transformative gift of photographs from Helen Kornblum in 2021—this richly illustrated catalog features more than 100 color and black-and-white plates. As we continue to aspire to equity and diversity, Our Selves contributes vital insights into figures too often relegated to the margins of our cultural imagination.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists'.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Document Journal
Regardless of the identity of the photographer, each work is united by the common framework of a diverse feminist lens—one that includes minorities of all experiences.
Guardian
Veronica Esposito
Our Selves is worthy of applause for the respect it pays to women of various intersectional identities – not only does it celebrate artists like Weems and Romero, it also offers Catherine Opie’s transformational photographs of queer life, and the show acknowledges its debts to postcolonial and queer theorists.
Brooklyn Rail
Ann C. Collins
Links the radical act of taking a photograph with feminism, civil rights, and the complicated parsing of identity continuously at play in women’s lives.
Tatiana Parcero’s “Interior Cartography #35” (1996) is reproduced from new release Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists, a survey exploring the connections between photography, feminism, civil rights, Indigenous sovereignty and queer liberation, published to accompany the exhibition currently on view at MoMA. In her essay, “What is a Feminist Photograph,” curator Roxana Marcoci touches on “the ecofeminist connection between the exploitation of nature and the oppression of women under a patriarchal system of ownership,” citing Parcero’s photomontage, which “superimposes imagery taken from Amerindian codices, astrological charts, flora and fauna associated with Aztec mythology and handwritten script onto the surfaces of the artist’s face and hands. Parcero’s overlay of Indigenous knowledge on the female body creates a map of self-governance linked to animist, anticolonial and natural histories—a feminist reclamation of land and a mobilization of cultural identity as resistance against colonialism’s legacy.” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 10.5 in. / 152 pgs / 114 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $45.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $61 ISBN: 9781633451339 PUBLISHER: The Museum of Modern Art, New York AVAILABLE: 5/10/2022 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of stock indefinitely AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Edited with text by Roxana Marcoci. Preface by Helen Kornblum, Kathy Halbreich. Text by Dana Ostrander, Caitlin Ryan, Phil Taylor.
How have women artists used photography as a tool of resistance? Our Selves explores the connections between photography, feminism, civil rights, Indigenous sovereignty and queer liberation
Spanning more than 100 years of photography, the works in Our Selves range from a turn-of-the-century photograph of racially segregated education in the United States, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, to a contemporary portrait celebrating Indigenous art forms, by the Chemehuevi artist Cara Romero.
As the title of this volume suggests, Our Selves affirms the creative and political agency of women artists. A critical essay by curator Roxana Marcoci asks the question “What is a Feminist Picture?” and reconsiders the art-historical canon through works by Claude Cahun, Tina Modotti, Carrie Mae Weems, Catherine Opie and Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, among others. Twelve focused essays by emerging scholars explore themes such as identity and gender, the relationship between educational systems and power, and the ways in which women artists have reframed our received ideas about womanhood.
Published in conjunction with a groundbreaking exhibition of photographs by women artists—drawn exclusively from MoMA's collection, thanks to a transformative gift of photographs from Helen Kornblum in 2021—this richly illustrated catalog features more than 100 color and black-and-white plates. As we continue to aspire to equity and diversity, Our Selves contributes vital insights into figures too often relegated to the margins of our cultural imagination.
