Hullo all,

It’s the Friday closest to Halloween! As is traditional, let’s celebrate with this classic Annie Liebowitz portrait of Susan Sontag:

I started a paragraph that tried to explain why I love this so much, but I don’t really think that this is required commentary. Perhaps spend the time you’d spend reading a paragraph noting tiny details about Sontag’s facial expression (“Sweetheart, do you have to keep playing with that thing? I’m quite busy”) and work environment.

Speaking of women photographers, here’s an article on Vivian Maier, of whom I was only vaguely aware before this year. It's not the happiest of stories but it is a testament to taking one's own projects entirely seriously without seeking the approval of others:

[D]omestic work is placed in opposition to artistic ambition, as if the two are incompatible. But are they? Street photographers are often romanticized as mystical flâneurs, who inconspicuously capture life qua life, who are in the world, but not of it. The help, like the street photographer, is supposed to be invisible. Menial tasks like child care have, historically, been relegated to working-class women, who give up domestic autonomy to live in intimate proximity to their employers while remaining employees.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/vivian-maier-and-the-problem-of-difficult-women

Onto painted portraits, enjoy this article on Laura Collins, who paints pictures of celebrities and near-celebrities. Her series, Real Housewives Pointing Fingers, is pretty relentless.

“For centuries, women have been portrayed through paint as reclined nudes and doting mothers,” Collins told me. “We idolize the Mona Lisa and praise her gentle smile, but all it does is reinforce in our society that women should be objectified and keep their mouths shut.” With paintings ranging in subject from Celebrities Crying to Lady Gaga’s Hats, Laura Collins is challenging the status quo.

https://www.thehairpin.com/2017/10/laura-collins-paints-the-pop-culture-matriarchy/

Have a lovely Friday,

Alex.