Sojourner Truth’s Photographic Shadow

[struggle4progress]

?w=387

By Roula Seikaly
AUGUST 10, 2016

In the course of her remarkable life, Sojourner Truth (c. 1797 – 1883) sat for photographic portraits on at least 11 occasions. By itself, this fact is significant ...

Twenty-first century image saturation traces its roots directly to photography’s dissemination in the nineteenth century. Though many photographic forms were popular at the time, the cartes de visite — small cards fitted with miniature portraits — outstripped daguerreotypes and tintypes. Cartes de visite shaped social exchanges — they were both collectible objects and an inexpensive means of establishing one’s identity.

While only privileged white Americans could afford to commission painted oil portraits, photographic portraits were easy to produce and inexpensive to purchase. Truth marshaled her prescient understanding of this emerging communication and political tool to support abolitionist and feminist efforts ...

https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/08/10/sojourner-truths-photographic-shadow-stretches-into-the-21st-century/

[Aristus]

1. She was an extraordinary woman.

n/t