Synopses & Reviews
Laura Wexler presents an incisive analysis of how the first American female photojournalists contributed to a "domestic vision" that reinforced the imperialism and racism of turn-of-the-century America. These women photographers, white and middle class, constructed images of war disguised as peace through a mechanism Wexler calls the "averted eye," which had its origins in the private domain of family photography.
Wexler examines the work of Frances Benjamin Johnston, Gertrude Kasebier, Alice Austen, the Gerhard sisters, and Jessie Tarbox Beals. The book includes more than 150 photographs taken between 1898 and 1904, such as photos Johnston took aboard Admiral Dewey's flagship as it returned home from conquering Manila, Austen's photos of immigrants at Ellis Island, and Beals's images of the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904.In a groundbreaking approach to the study of photography, Wexler raises up these images as "texts" to be analyzed alongside other texts of the period for what they say about the discourses of power. Tender Violence is an important contribution not only to the fields of history of photography and gender studies but also to our growing understanding of U.S. imperialism during this period.
Review
Wexler offers a groundbreaking account of how some of America's first women photojournalists became complicit with America's imperialistic project.
Women's Review of Books
Review
A rigorous and outstanding examination of gender as a key contributor to specific visual outcomes. . . . A most welcome addition.
Choice
Review
[Shows] extraordinary scholarly imagination and acumen.
American Quarterly
Review
This is one of the most beautifully architected academic books I know. Its portraits of early photographers and discussions of individual images build upon each other to produce a rich and ample sense of time and place so that reading it has often felt like inhabiting a world. (Karen Snchez-Eppler, Amherst College)
Review
A politically sophisticated analysis of photographs as portrayal and betrayal.
Journal of American History
Review
This book is a true landmark in the field of American studies.
Technology and Culture
Review
"Superb."
Feminist Studies
Synopsis
"Superb."
Feminist Studies A politically sophisticated analysis of photographs as portrayal and betrayal.
Journal of American History This book is a true landmark in the field of American studies.
Technology and Culture Wexler offers a groundbreaking account of how some of America's first women photojournalists became complicit with America's imperialistic project.
Women's Review of Books A rigorous and outstanding examination of gender as a key contributor to specific visual outcomes. . . . A most welcome addition.
Choice [Shows] extraordinary scholarly imagination and acumen.
American Quarterly
About the Author
Laura Wexler is professor of American studies and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Yale University.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. What a Woman Can Do with a Camera
2. Seeing Sentiment: Photography, Race, and the Innocent Eye
3. Tender Violence: Domestic Photographs, Domestic Fictions, and Educational Reform
4. Black and White and Color: The Hampton Album
5. Kasebier's Indians
6. The Domestic Unconscious
7. The Missing Link
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Credits
Index