Abstract
Scholars of the St. Louis World’s Fair often remark on the tightly controlled visual manifestations of the ethnographic and country displays and “entertainments” on offer at the venue, particularly the photographs of Native Americans, such as those in the Gerhard Sisters’ Aboriginal Portraits. Despite the fact that Emma and Mamie Gerhard are credited as the first professional women photographers to open a studio in St. Louis, there is a lack of even the most basic information about the sisters’ lives and careers. A contextual examination of individual photographs in the Aboriginal Portraits portfolio make visible the epoch’s cultural conditions and reveal the ultimate “other” at the fair: Chinese and Japanese women and children upon whose likeness the sisters appear to have established their “sameness” to Euro-American white men. Moreover, the examination of specific works and comparison to Louisiana Purchase Exposition (LPE) souvenir stereocards and photographs by anonymous Louisiana Purchase Exposition photographers clarifies how the sisters’ images present a dual perspective: on the one hand the pictures reflect imperialist “othering” of non-whites; on the other hand, these photographs tangentially participate in the Gerhards sisters’ purported method of creating “character” portraits so that the consumers’ curiosity about the women portrayed is piqued; in this sense, the women step out of the shadows to confront those who have othered them.
Presenters
Dena GilbyWalter J. Manninen Endowded Chair for Art History, Fine Art, Endicott College, Massachusetts, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Photography, Ethnography, Fairs, Nationalism, Women
