Aloe, 1920s
Gelatin silver print
20.8 x 16.5 cm (8-3/16 x 6-1/2 in.)
87.XM.74.1

"In one word, if I have not been absolutely feminine, then I have failed," wrote the American expatriate painter Mary Cassatt in 1893. Yet defining what is "abso- lutely feminine" in photography is not easy. Bourke-White (pl. 183), for example, treats a subject that may be interpreted as feminine only by employing somewhat obscure analysis, and few other women of her time would have shared, we expect, her opinion of what she termed "the beauty of industry." Likewise, Imogen Cun- ningham, who cited Gertrude Kasebier (related to-->> 109-1O) as a prime influence, chose a subject that is often associated with traditional female interests-the world of plants. Yet her treatment of the aloe transforms it into a bold, aggressive, and somewhat ominous masculine presence.