Ginger Sisco Cook
Gaines County Texas Telephone Road Mennonite Women, 2018
Digital Photograph
13 x 19 x 0 in
In her 1975 introduction to The Woman’s Eye, Anne Wilkes Tucker, museum curator of photographic works and editor, questioned whether or not certain sensibilities are uniquely feminine. She asked if...
In her 1975 introduction to The Woman’s Eye, Anne Wilkes Tucker, museum curator of photographic works and editor, questioned whether or not certain sensibilities are uniquely feminine. She asked if the feminine could be deciphered in a particular individual’s art. Early landscape photographer Lara Gilpin saw no difference between men and women. She insisted that quality had nothing to do with gender—“either you are a good photographer or you’re not.”
I contend that the American West was and still is defined by the eyes of males. Since the beginning of photography we have mostly been shown the West through the lens of a male photographer such as Ansel Adams. Few know the women who could stand toe to toe with Adams: Laura Gilpin, Mary Peck, Judy Dater, and Cynthia MacAdams, to name only some. Their work is striking and compelling but, for the most part, unknown to the general public.
My work on the Llano Estacado is to offer a woman's eye in photographing landscapes of West Texas.