Thesis & Background: Your thesis about the body of work and point of view you’ve chosen to explore, as well as background about the artists that lead you to your thesis.

Joanne Leonard: Feminism & Photography in the 1970s

The photographer I have chosen to research is Joanne Leonard. Joanne Leonard was born in Los Angeles, CA in 1940. I have decided to focus on her memoir, Being In Pictures. Leonard chose to create this memoir in order to show her readers how her personal life affected photography. She connected feminism and photography through her memoir in order to “understand the way women’s lives actually intersect with the world at large is crucial,” stated Leonard. On the right is a picture of women with their children, a classic life of a housewife that Leonard captured. The theme I have chosen to explore is how women lives were in the 1970s.

Leonard photographed the protests in West Oakland, the 1972 Winter Olympics, her marriage, her miscarriage, single motherhood (her daughter is pictured to the left), and taking care of her mother who had Alzheimers during the 1970s and onward. These events in her life greatly affected the photographs she took and how she presented them in her memoir. Some of these photographs are shown in a short video where the University of Michigan Press collaborated with UM School of Art & Design. This video shows Leonard discussing photos she has took throughout her life and the story behind them.

Leonard believed making her own memoir was a gift to her mother. She stated, “I’m the daughter of a psychoanalyst, so the thought of stories—I mean the stories of one’s own internal life—this had meaning and was important through my family. These inner-life stories were almost like gifts to my mother. She appreciated it if we would talk about how we felt about things, so it was very important in my growing up.” Leonard was also influenced by Anne Frank to start her own memoir as her father was a refugee from the Nazis.  Her father is pictured to the right. She stated in an interview with Sidonie Smith, “Anne Frank’s Diary, for all the horror it conveyed, also said that a young girl’s thoughts, and life, and everyday events could be important. I think maybe I’ve carried that notion of a story inside me and a relationship to her in ways that I have only begun to think about.”

 

After photographing her life events, Leonard wanted to present the photos she had taken as a collage. She believed “photographs don’t tell those stories. The very kinds of resemblances and coincidences and parallels and metaphors that something may have in it [are not always appar-ent].” Leonard made her photographs into a collage because she said “If I want to say, “Pay attention to this,” by bringing a collage to the surface and thereby saying, “This is like that,” this is what a collage does.”

Leonard is well-known throughout the world for her groundbreaking work using photo collage. The Brooklyn Museum stated “She is renowned for using this technique to bring visibility to personal and familial themes that once were invisible or taboo.” Leonard’s memoir was an intimate documentary into her life, and through her honesty and authenticity of her voice, she became one of the most famous photographers of her time.

I will continue to study Joanne Leonard’s Being In Pictures, and study the three images that were shown on this page. Leonard’s highs and lows of being a women during her adult life, has led me to explore more about the lives of women in the late twentieth century.

Mira,

This is an excellent opening statement for your final project. Here are a couple of pointers to keep in mind going forward and to guide you in editing this project statement.

First, please integrate the photographs into the text and identify them rather than leaving them at the bottom of the page.

Second, please insert citations (hyperlinks) not only on the sources page but also when you quote. You’ve got great sources and it should be easy for someone looking at this to go to the source should they want to.

Give Leonard’s birth date and place of birth.

In your second sentence, the verb should be affected, not effected.

Most of your paragraphs are good and short, but I would suggest starting another paragraph with “Leonard was also . . . ”

I am looking forward to the photographs and collage that you will create as part of your final project. You might also note, since Leonard used collage, that she also used photographs taken by other people. Finally, do pay attention to gender. It’s important that Leonard mentions her mother (not her father) and her daughter.

DDM

Methodology: What are the methods your artist uses in his/her photography? How did you attempt to see through his/her point of view by taking your own photos?

Photo Collage is the New Photography 

Joanne Leonard’s process of taking photos was very personal. Leonard believed the moments that happened to her were inevitable and thus her photography was a way for her readers to make sense of them. She stated that because she is a “daughter of a psychoanalyst, so the thought of stories—I mean the stories of one’s own internal life—this had meaning and was important through my family.” Taking photographs throughout her life “were almost like gifts to my mother.” Leonard would not get people to perform for her camera and she did not stage her photographs. She took photographs that she would be able to make collages with and/or could tell a personal story with. Leonard would take photographs of her family members (majority of her family photographs were inside her home) or people on the street. For example, the picture on the right is of Marjorie Leonard (Joanne’s mother) who she is heavily influenced by. She would also be interested in taking pictures of women that would build to her feministic view of women in the twentieth century. Leonard would pay less attention to the depth of field, contrast, color, composition, etc, as she would care more about what the intimate meaning of the photograph. However, she did pay attention to lighting as show in the picture on the right. She capture a picture of her sister with her kids while the lighting was coming from the window in order to create an emphasis on her sister and her kids. The lighting was used to add character and meaning to the photograph.

After Leonard captured photographs, she would make a photo collage of them. She believed “photographs don’t tell those stories. The very kinds of resemblances and coincidences and parallels and metaphors that something may have in it [are not always apparent]. If I want to say, “Pay attention to this,” by bringing a collage to the surface and thereby saying, “This is like that,” this is what a collage does.” A photo collage tells the reader what the author wants him/her to pay attention to. For example, the image on the right showed a window but she glued on a soldier on his horse in order to add a metaphor to the window. She saw two windows in her house and knew that she could make the windows become ‘alive’ by creating a collage from the photograph.

I plan to take photos inspired by Joanne Leonard by capturing moments of my family when there is memorial event occurring. I will also try to take photographs of my neighbors while they are outside and are doing some kind of act that is memorable to me. I will take the photographs at anytime during the day in my home. I will use my iPhone to photograph and make sure the images are black and white as Leonard stated she would “layer black and white transparencies over physical and material components.” I will print the photographs out and cut out images from magazines, and try to create my own photo collage. Hopefully by taking photographs that uses Leonard’s methods, I will try to understand how making a photograph into a photo collage will provide a sense of metaphors that a single photograph doesn’t show.

Mira,

This sounds like a promising methodology. I hope that you have the facility with collage to be able to do it on your computer. Please correct your last sentence (the grammar).

Your reflections on why Leonard used collage are excellent.

DDM

 

Photos & Analysis: Presentation of your own photographs inspired by that point of view. Text articulating what taking your own pictures taught you about the photographer’s point of view and its relevance. What is liberating about the point of view you’ve chosen to explore? How does it challenge you to look at the world differently?

A Photographic Glance Into My Family

The gallery below were photographs I had taken of my family over the span of a week. From dinner time, to study time, to play time, to my dog gazing in the window, and other objects in my house, I tried to take photographs that aligned with Joanne Leonard’s photography. I took pictures of events I participated in during the past week and the events that were occurring around me. I tried to capture all of those moments as best I could. I made the photos black and white because almost all of her photographs were black and white.

At first, I told myself I would not have my phone with me to capture moments. I realized I need to hold my phone with me at all times in order to capture as many photos I could but also to capture photos that were not posed, moments in time. I think that is what Leonard tried to accomplish. I think she wanted to capture moments in time in order to keep those moments forever and to revisit them whenever she could. Leonard stated that she started the memoir in order to make it for her mother so that she could remember memories of their lives. I knew taking photos of my family laughing and playing would be memories we would want to revisit years from now.

Gallery:

Leonard took intimate photos of her family as well as photos of events in her life she experienced in the world. I learned while taking photos that being apart of my family’s actions, it was easy to take photographs of my family either laughing or being serious. However, it was difficult to take some of the photographs and make them into a photo collage, like Leonard did with many of her photographs. I had to look at each photograph and see if any of them have a deeper meaning I could work with, or a photo that I could provide a meaning with that when others would look at it, they would see what I wanted them to see. For example, the photograph below where my mother is sleeping, if the picture of the ocean and the dream bubble weren’t there, it would seem the photograph would just look like a mother sleeping at the table. However, because the photograph was made into a photo collage, it adds much more meaning. The picture shows a tired and over worked mother who is dreaming of a break from reality. After realizing what photos I wanted to make into a photo collage and what to put in them, I realized that a photo college has much more emphasis on the photograph and adds a lot of weight. It explains why Leonard thought a photo collage was much better to make over just showing a plain photograph in her memoir. It surprised me that I was able to make a photo with almost no meaning into a photo that is filled with metaphors. The end product is very much relieving to see how these photos came to be.

I also wanted to highlight my mother with a photo collage because my mother is my role model. Leonard started her memoir because of her mother and took photos of her mother as well. Therefore, I was influenced by Leonard to try and take as many photos I could of my mother. I wanted to show others how much I appreciate her and how much I look up to her.

Selected Photos: 

My family is known to be very loud, laughing non stop, and always having a smile on our faces. Therefore, the picture above of my sister on the left laughing was one of my favorite photos I took during this assignment. It was shocking to me how easy it was to capture a honest and innocent laugh. In addition, it was shocking to me how simply taking a photo on my phone would create a photo that makes me smile so much. The slideshow below of my family at dinner time shows the moment when my sisters started laughing and highlights the people I cherish the most in life. These photos, all taken unposed, show how much the simple act of taking photographs can make a lasting effect.

Slideshow 1: 

The slideshow below are the five photos I chose out of Leonard’s memoir that I liked the most. She took pictures of her mother, her life long friends, her sister, her daughter, and created a photo collage of some of the pictures. Leonard wanted to take photos of her family, her life, and the way she experienced the late 2oth century. After taking my own pictures, I discovered that Leonard was trying to capture photographs so that others could see what she thought was important to her in her life, and memories of her experiences in life that she wanted the world to see.

As I took the pictures, there were characteristics that I didn’t notice. I did not pay attention to lighting of the photo, the contrast, and the color of the photo. I payed a lot more attention to the moment of the picture and the display of emotion. I think Leonard did pay attention to the lighting and contrast as shown below. For example, the picture of her mother on the left, the shading and the contrast adds a lot more emphasis to her mother’s body, and therefore shows that Leonard wanted others to see how much she looked up to her mother.

Slideshow 2: 

I created this slideshow above in order to draw upon Leonard’s use of windows and back lighting. In the pictures below, Leonard used windows and back lighting to create an emphasis on the people in her photographs as well as to help her make collages. In the photograph of the rooster, the lighting from outside goes though the window and hits the rooster. The shadow the rooster creates from the lighting shows that the rooster is much more than an object, it is apart of the house. This is similar to the photograph of the two windows she took with the knight from a collage coming into them. Leonard believed these windows are not just simply windows, they are there for imagination and a way for her to create metaphors from them. The photograph of my sister playing drums with the lighting coming in showed that she uses the light from the windows in order to help her play the drums. I took this photograph inspired by Leonard’s photograph of her sister with her children in the slideshow below.

Slideshow 3:

After taking many photos, I realized taking photos of my family while laughing, studying, playing the drums, and objects in my house was liberating. It made me realize I need to take more photos of my family in order to keep memories of them and the moments we enjoy together for as long as I can. It made me appreciate photographs much more. Many people take photos for granted as they do not understand how much a photograph matters. Capturing a photograph keeps a memory forever and allows us to remember the memory forever. Ultimately, while trying to mimic Leonard’s photographs, I discovered an art I used to take for granted.

 

Mira,

You’ve written a most thoughtful reflection on the process of taking photographs as well as the challenges of making meaning through collage. Although you only did one collage, you might consider a second one that draws upon Leonard’s use of windows and back lighting. The first photograph in the gallery has backlight, as does the one underneath it of the dog looking at the cat in the window. What would happen if you considered a collage with the rooster that you took? What kind of meaning and comment might be made, analogous to the photograph Leonard took of the window? I also like the photograph of the person sleeping wrapped in white. and the one of your sister playing the drums. In short, consider a slide show that doesn’t just show the meal around the table but it more deliberate in its juxtaposition of images, much like the slide show you created for Leonard.

DDM

From Simple Photographs to Story Telling

After taking my own photographs inspired by Leonard, I understood that lighting does play a huge effect in photography. It brings the objects and/or people in the photograph to life. For example, the picture on the left brings the minion to life. It makes the readers believe that the minion is almost in control of the photograph.

I did learn a lot from my original thesis and I do not want to change it. I stated earlier in the blog post that I hope to learn about how a photo collage will provide a sense of metaphors. I learned that creating a photograph into a photo collage adds much more meaning, metaphors, and context to a photograph. It also allows the photograph to control what you want the readers to see and learn from the photograph. For example, the picture below of my mother sleeping on the table shows her dreaming of a vacation. If I did not add the photo collage, many readers would see the photograph as a women who is sleeping on a table, maybe tired from a long day or she is simply dreaming. However, creating the photograph into a collage made me control what the readers should take from the photograph; This photograph is a picture of a mother who has helped her children so much today that she is exhausted and needs to rest.

Completing this project in the 21st century did influence my own interpretation of the 20th century as it showed that even though many women did not believe they had a voice during that time, photography was a way for them to show their voice, to show the world what their dreams, their struggles, and aspirations were. After completing this project, I viewed Leonard in a different light. Leonard was a women who used her photography to speak her thoughts and opinions, and to help people see a woman’s life in the late twentieth century through photography.

Mira,

It is good to read that you affirmed your original thesis at the same time that you also came to understand some of the difficulties that women faced and what types of opportunities were opened to them by becoming photographers.

Please be sure to identify all of Leonard’s photographs in your final project. You might also like to include a video interview with Leonard in the first part of the project.

DDM

Conclusion: Did you come to understand your Jewish photographer differently after taking your own photos? What did you learn about your thesis?

Sources: List of all your sources with hyperlinks. Be sure to separate photo sources from written research sources.

Written Sources:

https://www.press.umich.edu/17538/being_in_pictures/?s=description

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08989575.2014.921761

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/about/feminist_art_base/joanne-leonard

https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/joanne-leonard?all/all/all/all/0

Photo Sources:

https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2009/05/joanne_leonard.html