Eugene's Photographs
With this project I emulated Eugene
Von Bruechenhein, an outsider photographer. The term “outsider photography” is different than the
mainstream photography we see today. These artists like Eugene, use photographs
or photographic elements in their creation." This study has broad enough
parameters that include photomontage, collage, manipulation, and tableau
methodologies. Whether the artist is setting up a fantastic scene, gluing
cut-out photos into a work, or painting over the top of a photograph- he/she is
employing non-conventional means to express a wildly idiosyncratic and
personalized vision”(Turner and Klochko 136-143). Eugene practiced outsider photography
with a specific subject. He essentially took hundreds of photographs of his
wife, Marie, who he married in 1943. He would stage her in different costumes,
most of which resembled the popular pin-up girl. He then created these
awkwardly envisioned scenes behind her. “Working in his bathroom-cum-darkroom,
he developed his film and experimented with combination printing. He also
hand-colored many of his black and white photographs, and also shot in color
transparencies.” (Turner and Klochko. 136-143)
After emulating five of Eugene’s
photographs of his wife Marie, I started viewing his ideas differently. While
his pictures appeared collaborative, “Marie is, however, rarely completely at
ease. There’s an awkwardness, even a subtle deer-in-the-headlights alarm that
registers in these images and is perhaps the most direct reflection of Von
Bruenchenhein’s personality available to us” (Smith). While researching Eugene
I was very interested in his work and his mind set while creating. The pictures
of his wife seemed so imaginative, and appeared as if they had been playing
dress up together and pulling items out of a dress up box all day long. A quote
by Von Bruenchenhein that I became intrigued by reads, “All were made for the
love of creation”. It seems so ambiguous but after taking my own self-portraits
it made me believe his intention behind a camera was to create his own frame of
world. With his camera he could capture his imagination on to different canvas
for others to see, exactly how it appeared in his own mind. His idea was
expressed through Marie.
After taking my own photos, I started imagining
if I was in Marie’s shoes, and Eugene was taking the photographs. Replicating
her photos on my own, I essentially was playing Marie. By the end of the
process the photos I was capturing became very depicting. Picturing a man
capturing these Images of me, while being inserted into a strange and awkward
environment that only he understood. I felt as if I was promoting my sexuality,
and it became a gruesome and irritating process for me. In the act of my
picture taking, there was actually a car of men driving by that could see me
from their car windows. As they drove by, they shouted things like “Damn Baby!”
and whistled at me like I was a dog. From my experience playing Marie I started
emulating my last photos with my smile gone, and decided to create my own
reality as Eugene did. It made me realize the fact that many women allow men to
dematerialize them by condoning man’s mockery. With the way many beautiful
women dress and display their bodies publically, and vise versa with covering
too much. Society will not let us win, and it’s creating a barrier between
woman and mankind equality. My experience playing Marie and Eugene was an outsider
photography moment, and I impulsively decided to create my own message and
vision. My photographs are below:
Dona Morgan
