Emily-Jayne Ponting: Fine Art – Research and Communication Skills (Task 9)

Beuford Smith

Woman Bathing/Madonna, NY, 1967

Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper 34.3 x 25.4

‘It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others.’ Observation by DuBoi’s

Beuford Smith was a self-taught photographer. I became aware of his work as an artist when visiting the Souls of a Nation exhibition back in August this year and I was drawn to the way he interpreted his work. After looking into other photographers of interest to me, such as Dawoud Bey and Roy DeCarava – both found in the same exhibition – I saw similarities within their work and I was rightly to do so as I became aware of this… ‘In 1963 – in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement – a group of fifteen black photographers got together to critique and nurture each other. In Kenya’s Kikuyu language, “kamoinge” means a group of people acting together. Roy DeCarava was the group’s first director.’

Now aware of the group of photographers Beuford Smith was a part of and the Souls of a Nation Exhibition focusing on race around the 60’s in America; it became easier for me to understand from my research the pure emotion I was feeling from the pieces of work shown in front of me that I didn’t fully understand the theory behind.

‘I don’t think you can overstate how important this group is, historically, socially, and aesthetically. During the upheaval of the 1960s – the needless violence, murders, and sanctioned suppression – these photographers documented something only they could have seen, a world that was completely separate from what was shown by Hollywood, television, and mainstream mass media to the rest of American culture.’

Besides all of this knowledge you now know I am going to inform you on how I saw the ‘Woman Bathing’ before I gathered my initial research and notice how my description becomes relevant to the above detail without intentions.

Firstly I noticed the colour of the image and even though black and white photographs were representing a classic era in the 60’s; I felt an automatic dark and eerie feel. Her surroundings are also unsteady and broken – looking at the gate behind her – and due to her body positioning – clutching her face – I can only guess this may be how she’s feeling. She is clearly a pregnant lady and she shouldn’t be stood in a vulnerable dangerous area on her own. However by the title of the image ‘Woman Bathing’ this is where she is expected to wash. Where is her clothing? Who is looking after her? Does anyone care? The rain also emphasises her sadness and it hides her tears, if there are any?

From my description above this lady photographed doesn’t seem to be of any relevance to anyone. Her vulnerable state only emphasises how poorly black people were treated in America at that time and Beuford Smith has captured this aspect superbly.