I should have figured it out years ago. I stuck with what I was doing because it was what I had always done, and that’s what I was supposed to do, right? Well, I was sitting in a photography critique a week before I graduated from college, and I had to get up and defend the last work I would make in my undergrad. And all of the sudden it hit me. After four and a half years of college and training and workshops and nights staying in my darkroom, I was still not confident about my work. And yet I could walk into a kitchen, with no degree, no formal training, wearing baggy chef pants and no make-up and feel in control. No one could make me doubt myself, nothing could stand in my way—the kitchen was my domain. The only question that remains is why is it that these are two completely separate women?

This is the topic that Tiffany Ludwig and Renee Piechocki confront in their book Trappings: Stories of Women, Power, and Clothing. In this text, they are looking to define what power means to women and how exactly it is they turn it on in their own lives. However, there is no blanket definition that can define power for everyone. It is important to realize that the goal here should be individual empowerment—whether that means becoming a mother and raising a family, or if it means becoming a CEO of a Fortune 500, or the plethora of options in between.  Unfortunately, the word “feminism” has gotten a bad reputation over the years. Antifeminist have claimed that men and women are inherently different and rely on each other to be so. Extreme views on feminism say that women are breaking down not only familial structures, but also, on a greater scale, societal structures. People with these beliefs see women that are on the extreme end of a scale—always seeming as if they want to start a fight, outwardly expecting preferential treatment simply due to the fact that women have been oppressed. Even strong women have issues with how other women have attempted to attain power. Sociologist Sarah Spell says many women feel they attain power by deriving it through acknowledgement from their male colleagues. “Why we do that may be because we feel in terms of culturally defined power, we have to compete with as well as be accepted by men. Ideally, women would feel power from within, but I don’t think that’s realistic.” If we look at the technical definition of feminism, we see that all it states is simply that women want political, economic, and social equality.  As Cecile Springer said in her Trappings interview, “I would define power as having the ability to make a decision, have it carried out, and be able to measure the outcome” (218). As women, we need to assess not only what it means to us to have power in our own lives, but also look at how we have attempted this in the past and if it is really the most effective form of communication with the opposite sex and our harshest critics. Women throughout the history of photography have proven that if you love what you do, and you work to become the best at what you do, the respect, the power in your own life, and the progress in feminism will be sure to follow.

Colleen Wyse is the publisher of Women’s Wear Daily in New York City. Obviously, women are the majority where she works, and she brings a very interesting view point to the table in her interview. “…I do find it interesting in talking with other women who are perhaps in more male-dominated industries or perhaps more a fifty-fifty split, that they still talk about what I think are old stereotypes. I don’t see them anymore…” Wyse goes on to say, “…quite frankly, you often see women in power not wanting it to be discussed that they’re women…If they are featured in an article about power or leadership, they would prefer that their gender is downplayed rather than overplayed” (17, 18). This might seem like a new development in the recent decades that women are finally attaining power and being able to be seen without the prejudices that have existed in the past. However, this is not a new idea in the world of feminism. Catherine Weed Barnes Ward lived in the mid to late 19th century, and she worked diligently to attain equal rights for women in photography and in the public darkrooms that never welcomed women. She looked for no favors, she did not want preferential treatment—she simply wanted the judgment of photography not to take gender into consideration.
I say, therefore, to all societies, to give us a fair field and no favor; let us win our
spurs side by side with our brothers, and the result thus gained will be worth all the
trouble required. The day is coming, and will soon be here, when only one question
will be asked as to any photographic work—‘Is it well done?’
It is extremely important for us to realize that if we want to be viewed as equals in photography, or in any other field, that we must not overplay the fact that we are women. If we are successful photographers, we do not want to be seen as simply “women photographers”. The same goes for publishers, accountants, chefs, doctors—any field in which we choose to be successful.

Another important aspect of feminism and power that the book addresses is that women do not have to be tough and masculine or be perceived as manly to have power. Stephanie Rivera is a patrol officer in Santa Fe, New Mexico. However, this is what she does, and does not solely define who she is. “I’m a mom. I’m a wife. I’m a woman…I have to nurture them and do all those things that a mama’s supposed to do.” She talks about how these parts of her do not have to be separate entities. “Our mamas raised us this way. Our heritage is this way. Spanish women are very strong and we’re very dominant.” In her pages in the book, she has a photo of herself at the station in her uniform as well as a photo of herself at home, with her hair down, holding her daughter. It is not necessary for a woman to fit expected feminist stereotypes in order to feel empowered. This point was heavily stressed in the introduction to the book. They were not trying to find the most well rounded Superwoman and tell her story. Each individual’s story is unique, and each woman in the book has found her own strength.

If we again look back on the history of photography, we see incredibly successful and universally respected women who photographed very feminine, and not necessarily feminist subjects. Photographers such as Imogen Cunningham and Ruth Bernhard studied the beauty of form through subjects such as flowers and nudes. These simple, organic forms started to speak from the subconscious of the photographer to create beautiful, timeless images. These images were about the aesthetics of beauty and form, and yet they are inherently powerful in the world of photography. Photographers such as Imogen and Ruth created a name and a very successful career drawing their professional power from a very feminine subject matter.

Even in contemporary photography, we can see the same trends. A recent Artist in Residence at The Center for Photography at Woodstock created work based around her 3-year struggle with infertility. Lupita Tinnen was raised to believe from a young age that if you have sex, you would get pregnant. However, once her and her husband began trying to conceive a child, it proved to be more than difficult. Her work documented the grieving process she went through. “Accepting it felt much like grieving. I felt the disbelief, the yearning, the anger, the depression, and finally acceptance.” Lupita’s work is a beautiful example of how women discover their own power by non-traditional feminist means.

One of the most resonating themes that I took from the book was spoken by Linda Durham, a gallery owner from Santa Fe, New Mexico. She states, “I traveled alone most of the time, and in traveling alone in a foreign country where the culture is not that familiar and the language is unknown, there’s a sense of learning Who am I? Who am I when my popularity as a gallery owner or the people who know me are stripped away?” This is a very universal topic that we all deal with, whether we admit it or not. Sure, it is easy to find a little niche, find your rhythm, and find the people who fit into this rhythm, but what happens if we are placed in another setting? Does this define or measure our true power? Should we feel just as powerful in a new, foreign situation? Logically, if our strength comes from internal instead of external forces, we should be strong women in any setting. Or is it okay to explore our weaknesses and by accepting our weakness, become more powerful? Historically, we have seen many successful female photographers who have worked in documentary photography throughout the world. More importantly than their power in given situations, they looked to empower others who had no voice and no power of their own. Dorothea Lange worked through the Great Depression, legendary photographers such as Mary Ellen Mark and Susan Meiselas traveled to war-torn, poverty and famine- stricken countries to open the eyes of the rest of the world to the conditions they could not see previously. Susan Meiselas, along with the help of Harry Mattison, put together a book throughout the 1980’s called El Salvador: The Work of 30 Photographers. This book aimed to raise awareness of the civil war in El Salvador. Maybe it can best be described by Gandhi—“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” Maybe these photographers found their own power and strength by empowering others, even if they had to be placed outside of their comfort zones to do so.

Contemporary photographers Tarrah Krajnak and Wilka Roig showed an exhibition recently at CPW entitled Anthology of Trends.   …

Conclusion…