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New York, June 1942. "Nursery school at the Queensbridge housing project. Dressing a child after a nap." View full size. 4x5 nitrate negative by Arthur Rothstein for the Office of War Information.
Gertrude Käsebier's portraits may seem pretentious at first glance. Still, if we take unto account the era in which she lived and worked, it seems clear that she sought to produce artistic photos that were at the same time as spontaneous as they could be given the photographic technology of the day, which required relatively long exposures and hence rather rigid poses if the image was not to be blurry.The sense of immediacy and intimacy in the photo above was much easier to achieve, I suspect, with WWII-era cameras and films.
Gertrude Käsebier's work is certainly not pretentious. The above photo is documenting something, while Käsebier's work has a more artistic quality. Nothing pretentious about them.
I agree. Yet at the same time, this illustrates what I love so much about photography. It's an art form AND a record keeper. To me, the magic happens when they intertwine.
~mrs.djs
Only she's not his mother is she? She's his nursery school teacher.
This modest shot is a better study on motherhood than the pretentious portraits by Gertrude Kaesebier we've seen in the last few days.
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