The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black.

In her youth, Clare spent all her time with Patrick Carraday, the son of one of richest men in Galveston. Patrick who lives in the large historical home adjacent to her own is wild and reckless. Drawn to each other, they become confidantes and co-conspirators. After a shocking and horrifying incident that alarms both of their families, the two of them are sent away--to opposite corners of the world.

Clare is sent to Ohio where she marries and establishes herself as a successful photographer. After her daughter's death, though, and with her own marriage crumbling, Clare returns to the island that relentlessly calls out to her.  Though Eleanor, her mother, and Faline, the cook, try to dissuade her from seeing him, she persists in searching for Patrick who eludes her. 

Clare ostensibly returns to Galveston to create a photographic exhibit. Clare has an even more urgent need, however,  to excavate her past. She wants to understand her mother and father's coldness towards her. Most of all, she wants to know what happened after she and Patrick were sent away. 

Many stories swirl around the Carraday family, including the one about Stella who had become part of the island's lore. Clare identifies with Stella, who died while trying to escape the hurricane of 1900 with her architect boyfriend, Henry Durand, because Stella is also a rebel. 

As Clare sifts through ancient photographs, Clare tries to comprehend Stella's story. She planned on including Stella's story at her own photography exhibit. She is unprepared, however, for what she finds--a photograph of a woman that may be Stella.  If it is Stella, then the photo could prove the island's legend wrong. Stella may have survived the storm and she may have been forced to return to the Carraday house. 

Clare uncovers many more secrets--a secret relationship between Will Carraday and her own mother. As memories flood in, Clare begins to understand her difficult, complicated relationship with her father and sister. Clare pieces together the real reason she and Patrick were forcibly separated.

This novel captures the Galveston atmosphere perfectly as well as the isolation and the pride of its inhabitants. Inhabitants are proud to point out if they were BOI or born on the island. Black also depicts the island's rich history and its vulnerability. 

Clare mirrors the island's qualities. She feels isolated and vulnerable because certain facts have been kept from her. The truth, however, will set Clare free to be the artist that she was always meant to be. Black includes just enough mystery to keep readers hooked. 

Eight Girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto

Eight Girls Taking Pictures by Whitney Otto.

In Eight Girls Taking Pictures, Whitney Otto experiments with a new kind of fiction--a fictional portrait of real-life personalities. Though she changes their names and some details about their lives, what develops is a collage of fiction and non-fiction that tells the truth of the lives of eight innovative photographers.

In eight somewhat interconnected stories, Otto tell the stories of Imogen Cunningham, Madame Yevonde, Tina Modotti, Lee Miller, Grete Stern, Ruth Orkin, Judy Dater, and Sally Mann.

Though these women lived in different time periods and cultures, one constant emerges. Despite feminism that emerges in the 1970s, all of the women feel conflicted about their role as artist which conflicts greatly with other areas in their life. For most of these women, their roles as artist conflicts with motherhood, but for some, their work interferes with politics or other deeply held beliefs.

In the first story, Cymbeline faces the perplexing problem of wanting both a career (as a photographer) and a family. She first become enamored of her professor, Julius, while he and she photograph the "Procession of Princes," in Dresden.

Her time in Berlin both opens and closes doors for her. Cymbeline is a fictional version of Imogen Cunningham, a trailblazing photographer, who was once an apprentice at Edward Curtis' famous portrait studio in Seattle.

Other fictional portraits are those of Madame Yevonde whom Otto renames Madame Amadora. Madame Amadora feels conflicted between her life's work, photography, and motherhood.

Clara Argento, a fictional character based on the life of Tina Modotti, also feels conflicted. While she has no children, she feels torn between her role as artist and revolutionary. 

Charlotte Blum, a fictional version of Grete Stern, sums up best the conflicts these female artists feel:



"She didn't hate being a wife any more than she hated being a mother. What she hated was the way that wife, mother, and photographer created an unsolvable equation. What she hated was trying to solve the mathematics of her various roles."

Torn between her family in Argentina and her loves for Ines and photography, Clare laments that, "a woman always has to choose."

According to Clare, women, cannot have career and family and love; they must choose one role at the expense of another--a theme that repeats itself throughout Eight Girls Taking Pictures.

Miri Max (Ruth Orkin), for instance, laments that she cannot be in,

 "two places at once, two people at the same time. If she could split herself one Miri would be happy spending all day with her toddling children...Her other self would be making movies with David. Or possible taking pictures on her own..."

Eight Girls Taking Pictures does not shy away from the issues that have been tackled often--issues of women's rights, marriage, and work. Otto, however, delves further by looking at the way motherhood conflicts with a woman's role as artist. She distinguishes work from fulfilling work that involves creativity and a sense of achievement.

In the last chapter, Jenny can work as a photographer by taking wedding or debutante photographs but she wants something more. Though she is criticized for it, she takes intimate photographs of her children. The photographs are not merely family snapshots as they show the viewer both childhood and motherhood in the abstract. 


Characters and their real life counterparts:

Cymbeline Kelley--Imogen Cunningham
Madame Amadora--Madame Yevonde
Clara Argento--Tina Modotti
Lenny Van Pelt--Lee Miller
Charlotte Blum--Grete Stern
Miri Marx--Ruth Orkin
Jessie Berlin--(partly-based on Judy Dater)
Jenny Lux--Sally Mann



A "Select bibliography" at the end of the novel is an unexpected  gift to readers eager to learn more about the women portrayed in this work of historical fiction.



For more information about Whitney Otto, www.whitneyotto.com