Simple stuff. Taking pictures of people is simple, right? Well, yes...but making them so ethereal and almost real instead of choreographed definitely takes passion and skill. Gertrude Käsebier is fantastic in catching the "realness" of a person. Their true facade, no matter how staged they are. I really like "The Manger" photograph because of it's haunting look. She's portraying, of course, Mary the mother of Jesus and is shown to be placed in a dank, nasty poop barn and yet is so lovely. It creates the sense that even in the dingiest of places something can be seen as beautiful. Gertrude is known to portray motherhood in a lot of her pieces, and we all know that motherhood is not all unicorns and butterflies and rainbows.
The woman seated in the chair looks to have such a lonely sense about her. Is she waiting to be married and is contemplating her future life? Or did her fiancé just leave her at the alter? I really like this photo because it's just like BAM!@#%$ Just the starkness of her dress in contrast to the dark area surrounding her is so intense. The way her dress flows just takes you up and down and all over.
The video is an awesome bio video about Gertrude; the only thing being is that when I read up on her on wikipedia, I found that the person who posted the video took verbatim from there and put it in their video. Good video, just wish it had been less word for word. :)
