On display now at the Tampa Museum of Art is an exhibition that celebrates the anonymous women who shaped the evolution of vernacular photography. Taking Pictures: Women of Independent Spirit brings together photographs from the Collection of Peter J. Cohen, a photographic archive spanning the analog era from the 1890s through the 1990s. The photos will be on view until October 8, 2023.
Women of Independent Spirit
This exhibition charts photography’s momentum across the 20th century as a medium for self expression alongside the expansion of women’s independence. As self-trained image makers and collaborative subjects, women played out new ways of being in the world both in front of, and behind, the camera. he photographs connect through shared gestures, shadow patterns and echoing poses of women belonging to an intersection of race, class, age, and era.
These photographs record vibrant times, magic hours, private performances, and experiments with identity. One captured moment contains countless narrative directions speckled with signifiers: a photographer’s shadow spills across a lawn, the silhouette revealing the cinched waist of a dress. Someone glances at the camera with a knowing look, or turns her face away in refusal. Another woman holds her camera at eye-level and gazes into a mirror, recording herself as the author of the image. The journey made by each image is evident on the surface of the photograph itself, with its frayed edges, creases, and scratches. Each hint offers a clue to who, when, why, with each image leading only to more questions.
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On these walls, the wide range of formats and visual experimentation hint at divergent and coexisting waves of image-making across the twentieth century. The photograph records an impulse to hold still for a moment, offered to us now for a longer look. With time on our side, we can let our eyes linger on what she wanted us to see.
Taking Pictures: Women of Independent Spirit is curated by celebrated gallerist Julie Saul and Carly Ries.
