Graverson 1 Emilee Graverson HAVC 141J Murray March 14, 2012 Destabilizing Notions of Beauty: How Leibovitz and

Woodman Define Feminism Annie Leibovitz and Francesca Woodman are both female photographers that define the canon of contemporary photography, by each taking a unique perspective and creating a body of work that defied gender norms. Leibovitz and Woodman were very different photographers; while Leibovitz was a photographer of the culture and spirit of her time, Woodman chose to intimately self-image in order to portray darker themes or death and decay. Both of these women actively changed the role women played in photography, as well as the way women were imaged. Woodman, like many female artists, seeks to defy the male gaze, an ever-looming theme in the depiction of females, more specifically female nudes. In short, the male gaze is the male artists objectifying and idealistic portrayal of the female body. Moreover, it creates an unrealistic picture that usually shows women as submissive, sexualized and the object of their desires. This is exactly what female artists seek to resist. Woodman images female nudity through an emotionally fragile lens. Her photographs have a certain aura of destruction, deterioration and lifelessness, which still remain very honest to the female spirit. As an extremely young photographer, many misconstrue Woodman as a troubled girl who eventually committed suicide at the age of 22. In reality, Woodman was strikingly talented and astute in her creation of images that pointedly critiqued a society that was hard for a young, white female to succeed in the arts.

Graverson 2 Her own self-imaging poses an interesting facet to her work. It has and flavor of narcissism, but even heavier is how prevalent her physiological processes are in her photographs. Woodmen is often blurred, or obscured by some object in her photographs. The repetition of her anonymity is her contemplation of death, and a look into a world in which she is simultaneously existing and not existing. As Phelan comments that, frequently posed at the edge of the frame, Woodman repeatedly expresses her dual desire to inhabit and to escape the limit of the visible." (Phelan 993) Like many young artists burdened by talent, Woodmans art is descriptive of her inner turmoil, and her path to find meaning. Her blurred figures only emphasizes insecurity or her own image, or as Phelan calls it, an image of her own imagelessness(Phelan 987). Although young and struggling to find answers for her own problems, Woodman had a strong grasp on the plights of feminist artists and their goals. Woodmans work revolved heavily around the use of glass, mirror and other reflective, yet broken surfaces. She was fixated with the reflection as a juxtaposition of reality with a false reality. Her series titled A Woman, a Mirror, a Woman Is a Mirror for a Man connected to her very self-aware feminist ideals. In Francesca Woodman Reconsidered, the idea of the male gaze is brought up several times. It is agreed upon that it is a seemingly outdated form of feminist critique, and that Woodman has surpassed it into her own realm of feminist art (Baker 55). It is important to note that Woodman gained recognition in the late 80s into the 90s, when she was creating these works in the late 70s/ 80s. Baker comments about feminist theory in the 90s shifting to address more directly beauty and seduction, which were more taboo subjects in the 80s (Baker 55). So, as analyzed by the scholars in the time she gained acclaim, she fit well into the feminist

Graverson 3 agenda with the effortless sensuality of her work. Her fetishization, or, perhaps selffetishization, is a critical look at herself, a subject that she was struggling to grasp or understand. Going back to the narcissism that permeates Woodmans work, Daly and Baker come to the conclusion that this narcissism, or for lack of a better word selfindulgence, connects Woodman to contemporary female photographers more than ever. (Baker 62) Her use of herself as a subject, is her imaging of the female figure in a way the explores the meaning of femininity, the pitfalls of beauty and sexuality, and the bodily experience associated with a piece of art. (Baker 63) Woodmans feminist role is somewhat convoluted, due to her function as an embodiment of a cul-de-sac of feminism that keeps getting repeated. (Baker 62) Her use of sensuality and space explores the search for identity all young people embark on. Woodmans nude female figures are repeatedly positioned in deteriorated settings, with dirt and sawdust covering them. Clearly a critical take on the fetishized female, Woodmans works speak of a woman who was transformative to her own context, and malleable to the feminist agenda even now. While Woodmans work had some hint of intimacy in it, Leibovitzs had a different approach to assessing and defying the barriers for women in the arts. Leibovitz continues to be a critically acclaimed photographer, and from an early age has been involved in documenting celebrity life, from the Rolling stones in the 60s, to Vanity Fair Magazine covers now. She has gained major success, while still being a provocateur and constantly surprising the public on her social commentary. In this way, Leibovitz and Woodman were both provocative in their blatant condemnation of social norms of sexuality. However these two artists couldnt have been more different.

Graverson 4 Annie Leibovitz will go down in history as a documenter of American life, as well as a woman who has both talent and strength. Her confrontational images regarding race, gender and sexuality are very prominent in American culture. Similarly to Andy Warhol in the 60s, I believe that Leibovitz is getting to a point in her career where she is bordering on celebrity status herself. Just as Warhol became a household name, in a time that that was very rare, Leibovitz is widely well known in America for being a photographer. Her job of imaging celebrities becomes convoluted when her name as a label itself gains a piece accommodation. Despite this, in Bellafantes piece, she claims over more than 20 years, during which the role of celebrity in American culture has grown infinitely greater and more complex, her own approach to it has remained the same: no darker, no wiser, no less infatuated with myth." (Bellafante 3) The myth of the celebrity is a major theme Leibovitz plays with. More often than not, she deals with issues of femininity and sexuality while still hoping to grab a viewers attention. Her own sexual identity was hardly ever a topic of her work, until the death of her lover, Susan Sontag. She published a very personal book of photographs that chronicled her relationship and her motherhood, work that had never been seen from her before. Her transition from celebrity provocateur to mother caused quite a stir. In Michele Pridmore-Browns article, Annie Leibovitz's Queer Consumption of Motherhood she compartmentalizes Leibovitzs queer identity, as she publicly queers motherhood as an institution in the sense of consuming it against the grain of its normative consumption (Pridmore-Brown 83) Leibovitz does this with her photograph of herself nude and pregnant. She rejects age, sexuality, and gender normativity when she publishes this image of herself. Compared to her image of Demi Moore pregnant, her self-image

Graverson 5 shows wrinkles, imperfections, and a stern confidence, but nowhere conventional beauty. But conventional beauty is not needed in this personal photo. Imaged by her lover, Sontag, Leibovitz is free of societal ideals of beauty. By rejecting motherhood as an institution, she looks out to the viewer and challenges them to stare back. Her unconventional portrayal of an even more unconventional pregnancy illuminates what Feminism means to Annie Leibovitz. Her motherhood stands for something larger. Her role as a provocateur does not stop with her photography. Her pregnancy later in life was a moment that allowed Leibovitz to move from on observer of life, to a participant-observer (Pridmore-Brown 92) She stands for the equality of motherhood between single mothers, lesbian couples, poor mothers, rich mothers, surrogate mothers, and how these identities all tie into the institution of motherhood. Leibovitz brings a view of American life that is both true and terrifying. PridmoreBrown concludes she has destabilized notions of the beautiful, the outr, and the poignant." (Pridmore-Brown 81) Leibovitz is a revolutionary mind in photography. As an establisher of American culture and life, Leibovitz illuminates American society to cultural issues, establishing her queer, female status in the higher ranks of American life. The two female photographers discussed in this essay help define and create the opportunities females in photography have today. Although Woodman dies at a young age, her work continues to make a splash and causes scholars to question her unique and sharp sense of what femininity meant to her. Leibovitz continues to challenge the celebrity world, drawing upon race sexuality and gender to actively defy the normative social standings. Both image the female body in ways that defies conventional attractiveness, and explores the traumas, and hardships of beauty.

Graverson 6 Works Cited

George Baker, Ann Daly, Nancy Davenport, Laura Larson, Margaret Sundell, Francesca Woodman Reconsidered: A Conversation with George Baker, Ann Daly, Nancy Davenport, Laura Larson, and Margaret Sundell, Art Journal, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Summer, 2003), pp. 52-67

Bellafante, Ginia. ART; What Celebrity Looks Like: The Annie Leibovits Aesthetic Oct 2003, New York Times. pp. 1-3 (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/26/books/art-what-celebrity-looks-like-the-annieleibovitz-aesthetic.html?pagewanted=1)

Peggy Phelan, Francesca Woodmans Photography: Death and the Image One More Time, Signs, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer 2002), pp. 979-1004

Michele Pridmore-Brown, Annie Leibovitz's Queer Consumption of Motherhood, Women's Studies Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 3/4, Mother (Fall - Winter, 2009), pp. 81-95