Alice Austen
1866-1952, United States
Alice Austen, photographer, created images of her lover, Gertrude Tate, and their lesbian friends. Austen also photographed other people, like women workers and coal miners. (Cooper, 88) Austen was a lesbian in a society that was controlled by men and which expected women to marry and bear children. Lesbianism was not considered a threat because it was assumed that genital sex could only occur between a man and a woman. Still, it had to be difficult for Austen and her friends because of the expectation to marry a man.
Alice Austen had met her lifelong (over fifty years) love, Gertrude Tate, in 1899. (Cooper, 88) How many "normal" marriages last that long?
I have read that families would destroy photographs that depicted gay or lesbian life because they didn't want it known that they had homosexual relatives. I think that Austen should be remembered for her "images of lesbian life which even today seem remarkably explicit." (Cooper, 87) Her photographs are important for their documentation of lesbian life in the past. An example of Austen's lesbian images is "Violet Ward on Her Porch with a Friend". (Cooper, 89)
Ward was a childhood friend of Austen and the friend in the photograph is Ward's lover. The women are both seated, one chair is higher than the other, in front of a house. One of the women has her arm and hand resting in the other's lap. They are dressed in the style of that time for women, though one may appear to be wearing a suit.
The photograph is an image of a committed couple. Should it matter that they are both women? I like the photo because it is an honest portrait and a link to the past.
I would like to see more of Alice Austen's work. If anyone knows of other sources for her work, please let me know.
Austen's work
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