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Monday, June 24, 2013

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

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

Bloodroot by Amy Greene.

The minute the baby opened her eyes Byrdie knew that LouAnn's curse has been lifted. Angry about a relative's will that left her out, LouAnn put a curse on the family until someone in the family was born with haint blue eyes. 

Haint blue is supposed to ward off evil spirits and curses in the Appalachian subculture but its also a rare eye color in some families. Byrdie's Grandmaw said, "That old devil knows ain't nobody been born with blue eyes in our family for generations." 

So begin Amy Greene's captivating Appalachian tale. Folk medicine, witch craft, fortune-telling are major components of Greene's story. Doug soon learns that his beloved Myra is a member of a family rumored to be witches.

Douglas' doomed love for Myra is a familiar story--a backwoods version of Jay Gatsby and Daisy--yet it also remarkably unique.  Unlike Gatsby, Doug is remarkably self-aware and besotted at the same time.

"That night I was so dizzy and sick...thinking about what Tina Cutshaw had said in fifth grade, that bad things would happen to me if I kept on loving Myra. I guess I knew even back then how things would turn out."

The second half of the book documents Myra's sad decline and the tragic fate of her children, John and Laura. Like her mother and her granny before that, Myra has made terrible choices in exchange for blood-red love.


The man Myra most desires and marries turns out to be cruel and possessive. Just like Wild Rose, the Cotters' paint horse, Myra craves freedom. Lacking an education, except for a deep and abiding love for Wordsworth's poetry, Myra lacks the ability to secure the independence and freedom she craves.


Myra makes one terrible choice after another until she is forced to leave her beloved mountain. The twins are left to scramble on their own, even if the blood-red ring and memories of happier times bind them together.

Tightly woven into the plot is the superstitions and beliefs that Appalachian subculture is known for. Mountain people believe in signs, curses, love potions, revenge, and miracles. They believe that some have special gifts e.g. the gift of vision or the healing touch.

Myra herself has a disturbing vision when she first enters the rented home--a ramshackle home near railroad tracks--that she and her new husband share.

A turning point in the novel occurs when John and Laura no longer believe in the curse that has seemingly darkened their family's life. While parts of  Bloodroot are incredibly sad and troubling, the novel ends on a hopeful note. This is an inter-generational story about love, madness, resentment and forgiveness.