"The Unseen Women" no.21
WOMENinSTRENGTH
series
My series is based on womens strengths and are a monument honoring their journey.
Embedded Files
"The Unseen Women"
My series is based on womens strengths and are a monument honoring their journey.
24x36" ( no.19 in series)
Medium: Charcoal, pastels and Ink-Wash on Multi-Layered Rice/mulberry Paper, Mounted on Canvas
Artist Statement:
Artist Statement:
My work explores the paradox of visibility and invisibility in the lives of working-class women of the 1930s and 40s. Inspired by Edwin Rosskam’s 1941 photograph of an alley dwelling family in Washington, D.C., I intentionally cropped out the upper body of the mother figure, leaving only the quiet gesture of her apron and skirt standing behind her two children. Society reduced these women to invisible, background roles of domestic labor and custodial work, looking past their humanity even as their hands maintained the nation’s capital. Yet, by rendering her incomplete figure as the solid background framing her children, the art speaks to her true stature: unseen by the world, but the indispensable, ever-watchful backbone of her family’s survival.
Direct Web URL: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017729777/
Title: [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Negro family in front of their alley dwelling. The older woman is a cleaning woman in the U.S. government. Washington, D.C.]
Creator(s): Rosskam, Edwin, 1903-1985, photographer
Date Created/Published: [1941 July]
Medium: 1 negative : nitrate ; 35 mm.
Reproduction Number: LC-USF33-005216-M5 (b&w film nitrate neg.) LC-DIG-fsa-8a16008 (digital file from original neg.)
This photograph—taken in July 1941 in Washington, D.C.—captures a Black family gathered outside their alley home.
The Subjects: The older woman standing in the doorway was employed as a cleaning woman for the U.S. federal government. Seated below are younger members of the family, including a mother tending to a baby and young children sitting on wooden steps against the exterior brick wall.
The Setting: They are situated in one of Washington, D.C.’s notorious "alley dwellings"—narrow, hidden residential enclaves built in the interior blocks behind main city thoroughfares.
FSA Role: Unlike itinerant field photographers like Dorothea Lange or Walker Evans who spent extended months traveling through rural agricultural regions, Rosskam often specialized in urban documentary projects. In the early 1940s, Stryker tasked him with documenting city housing conditions, racial segregation, and urban life, particularly in Washington, D.C. and Chicago.
NelaRenae.com 423.618.6811 (text only) NelaRenae27@gmail.com
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse