 |
November 21, 2009 |
  |
Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
|
|
Columns |
|
The turn of the century in the United States has always held with it a romantic ideal of men on great migrations in search of new lives; a time when dreams could be fulfilled with hard work. Thoughts of cowboys, open ranges, and undeveloped miles of land, where the road a man chose was the one he made for himself. These images come to mind because the lives of most women were never documented, let alone the immigrants of other countries that went west in search of prosperity.  Photographing Montana 1894-1928 (The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron), Cover, 1913 © Mountain Press In the 1970s Donna M. Lucey hit a gold mine that opened the book on women in the Montana frontier at the turn of the century. Lucey shares it with the publication of Photographing Montana 1894-1928 (The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron). Lucey condenses the life of upper class British born ex-patriot, Evelyn Cameron, and her extraordinary abilities photographing and journaling her experiences in Montana.  Evelyn on petrified tree, Badlands, 1899 © Mountain Press Cameron kept a diary and all her letters since she moved to America in the 1890s, except for one year. Lucey found all of them, plus all of Cameron’s glass plate negatives in the basement of Cameron’s old ranch, with the majority of them in perfect condition, despite no kind of preservation. Through these diaries and images a new kind of portrait of frontier women emerged. Evelyn was hard working, self reliant, resourceful, methodical, artistic and in love with nature and the hard frontier way of life.  Evelyn standing on horseback, 1912 © Mountain Press Cameron fell in love with photography and began to use it to provide for her and her husband after their failed attempt in trying to breed polo quality horses. She photographed family portraits for money, traveling days and even sleeping over night miles away from home in order to take pictures, to the dismay of her husband, and was only paid for the shots that families approved.  Ewen, Badlands hunting trip, 1899 © Mountain Press Her work is amazing, from a technical standpoint, and her willingness to do whatever was needed to get the picture. Without a telephoto lens, she was able to get close up photographs of Montana wildlife. Her portraits of the frontier people are realistic and meant to show her subjects the way they lived. Sun burnt faces in worn clothing appear dirty, even when they were cleaned up.  Fourth of July picnic, Fallon, Montana, 1908 © Mountain Press Cameron’s self-portraits were even starker and more important historically, with respect to women’s work. She photographed herself doing chores and with horses. One photograph taken on a petrified tree that had fallen across a canyon highlights the kind of determined woman that she was for getting her images.  German Picnic, July, 1913 © Mountain Press The excerpts from her diary put the images of people and places into perspective. One not only gets to know the environment and people through Cameron’s lenses and eyes, but through her mind and heart. At a time when immigrants were looked down upon, Cameron gladly photographed and got to know the Italian, German, and Russian immigrants that were flocking to Montana in search of opportunity.  Goshawk and Grouse Prey, 1906 © Mountain Press Photographing Montana contains over one hundred-fifty B+W photographs taken by Cameron showing life in Montana during her life as well as excerpts from her diaries. Donna M. Lucey pulls the reader into Cameron’s life and character. Photographing Montana is the life of one woman and the people she knew and is an invaluable record.  Marsh, Montana, 1910 © Mountain Press
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2002 - 2009 Take Great Pictures |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
