Three women, Marshall, Texas ca. June 19,1900 (printed 2006/07) Gelatin silver print The Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich 3635 Among the photographs Gabriele Münter took during her U.S. travels is an important set documenting the Emancipation Day (now Juneteenth) celebrations in Marshall, Texas, on June 19, 1900. This image is likely part of that group. Münter photographed three Black women walking through the center of town, elegantly dressed and carrying parasols. They stand between her camera and the gazes of several white children behind them. With quiet defiance, two of the women meet Münter's lens directly, while the third looks to the left. The next day, Münter wrote to her brother in Germany that she "snapped as though body and soul depended on it," but ran out of film. Other photographs from the event feature riders on horseback, parade floats, and crowds captured from behind, all of which situate the artist as an onlooker. Colonial structures of privilege and power frame Münter's positionality as a German woman visiting the American South. Nonetheless, her images suggest an effort to preserve the agency of her subjects.
Three women, Marshall, Texas ca. June 19,1900 (printed 2006/07) Gelatin silver print The Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich 3635 Among the photographs Gabriele Münter took during her U.S. travels is an important set documenting the Emancipation Day (now Juneteenth) celebrations in Marshall, Texas, on June 19, 1900. This image is likely part of that group. Münter photographed three Black women walking through the center of town, elegantly dressed and carrying parasols. They stand between her camera and the gazes of several white children behind them. With quiet defiance, two of the women meet Münter's lens directly, while the third looks to the left. The next day, Münter wrote to her brother in Germany that she "snapped as though body and soul depended on it," but ran out of film. Other photographs from the event feature riders on horseback, parade floats, and crowds captured from behind, all of which situate the artist as an onlooker. Colonial structures of privilege and power frame Münter's positionality as a German woman visiting the American South. Nonetheless, her images suggest an effort to preserve the agency of her subjects.
I wonder if this is one of the earliest Juneteenth photographs ever taken
#Photography #GabrieleMunter #Kodak #KodakBullseye #GuggenheimMuseum #Juneteenth
