"Herstory if Caught by the Camera's Eye:" Photographers of Oregon's Lesbian Lands
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Date
2020-12-08
Authors
Root, Raechel
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
This thesis explores the photography of Oregon’s lesbian land communities, through the Ovular workshops hosted at the lesbian land Rootworks from 1980 to 1983 and their subsequent magazine The Blatant Image (1981-1983). I argue that these photographs are crucial to developing, documenting and disseminating a queer ecological “culture of nature.” I analyze the photographs’ blending of the female body and the landscape, through Ruth Mountaingrove’s landscape- portraits, as well as a recognition of the land as female and erotic, typified by Tee Corinne’s Isis series. I argue that the photographs cultivate an intimate, circular sense of visibility through the print networks of The Blatant Image, and that their distribution is a tactic for suggesting alternative futures. Lastly, I reflect on the archival existence of these photographs in that future, and their subsequent engagement by contemporary artists such as Carmen Winant.
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Keywords
art, feminism, feminist art, lesbian lands, photography, queer ecology