Tag Archives: photographer

The Black Women of Appalachia, 1920s

Posted on February 3, 2022 by Lynn

If you are looking for dignified portraits of older American women, sooner or later you will come across the work of Doris Ulmann (1882-1934). She started out as a celebrity photographer, but in the 1920s her life took a turn.  … Continue reading →

Posted in 1920s | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Book Review–Bill Cunningham: On the Street

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Lynn

Bill Cunningham, the famous fashion photographer, liked to claim that he wasn’t a photographer at all.  Instead he was a columnist who wrote with pictures.  There is something to this statement.  The story goes that he first documented what he … Continue reading →

Posted in 1970s, 1980s, 1990, 2000s, 2010s | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Robert Frank and the Older Woman

Posted on September 19, 2019 by Lynn

Swiss American photographer Robert Frank recently died. Although he had a lifetime of achievements, he is most famous for his early book The Americans published in 1959.  It was a record of a cross country trip that he made in … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Fashion Advice from a Fashion Photographer, 1967

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Lynn

The Fall/Winter Simplicity pattern book from 1967 contains a ten page spread of fashion advice for older women from the photographer Frances McLaughlin-Gill.  I had never heard the name, but she was well known at the time for her fashion … Continue reading →

Posted in 1960s | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Documenting the Department Store, 1961

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Lynn

What a wonderful contrast between the shopper and the worker in this 1961 photo by Ruth-Marion Baruch.  I discovered it in the alumni magazine of my undergraduate alma mater, UC Santa Cruz.  The university was gifted the archive of Baruch … Continue reading →

Posted in 1960s | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Prime Time—A Feminist Journal for Older Women

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Lynn

When Marjory Collins lost her job in 1971 at the age of fifty-nine, she couldn’t find a new one.  Employers weren’t interested in hiring a woman of her age. Out of anger she created her own position, although one without … Continue reading →

Posted in 1970s | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Marjory Collins—Chronicling the Lives of Older Women

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Lynn

During the Second World War, Marjory Collins (1912-1985) was hired by the Office of War Information to provide a photographic record of American life on the home front. Most of her photos fit a standard mold—parades, church scenes, factories. But … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Lisette Model’s “Woman with Veil,” 1949

Posted on March 5, 2016 by Lynn

You may be forgiven for not knowing the name Lisette Model (pronounced with a long o, as in toe). She hasn’t made it onto the list of those most often cited in the American photographic pantheon. If she is mentioned … Continue reading →

Posted in 1940s | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Book Review–A True Likeness: The Black South of Richard Samuel Roberts, 1920-1936

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Lynn

Have you ever stopped to wonder how many photographic records of the past have been lost or destroyed? This book, edited by Thomas L. Johnson and Phillip C. Dunn, is the result of an almost miraculous reclamation. Thousands of glass … Continue reading →

Posted in 1920s | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

At the Train Tracks, Mid-Century

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Lynn

Most of the photos I find are amateur family snapshots where it is sometimes hard to determine accurate color or details. This one, a color slide, is of an unusually high quality. I suspect that whoever took the picture had … Continue reading →

Posted in 1950s | Tagged , | 4 Comments