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| Portrait of Simone Téry (left) with Doris Stevens (right) at the First
World Conference on the Codification of International Law. March-April 1930. Nederlandsch Foto-Bureau (Haarlem, Netherlands). From the Schlesinger History of Women in America collection. |
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The images of members and associates of the Inter American Commission of Women caught my attention both because I had been unaware of the efforts of this international women's rights organization beginning in the 1920s, and because the women depicted are so diverse and their individuality comes through so clearly. This portrait is one of the more personal; the contrast in the dress styles and manner of addressing -- or not addressing -- the camera between the French writer Simone Téry and the American suffragist and organizer Doris Stevens particularly struck me.
Good, even though it has much more of the feel of a snapshot, it still has a lot of information for us.
ReplyDeleteI find the contrasts in this photograph to be quite striking. First you have the casualness of their poses as though the photographer stumbled upon an intimate moment. Secondly, the two women seem completely at odds and yet perfectly suited: one dressed all in black, looking into the camera, and generally looking both insouciant and sly, her background a darker wooded area with plants, underbrush, and a knoll further back, not to mention the white fox draped over her should that looks like it's ready to pounce; contrasted with the other woman dressed in creams with a much more rigid posture and physically taking up less space in the photograph, her background matches her both in color and structure.
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