A Woman of the Thirties (Jackson) (work of art)

About

This portfolio of 18 photographs by the acclaimed American author, Eudora Welty, was produced by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in Jackson, MS in 1992; using Welty’s original negatives from the 1930s and 1940s housed in the Eudora Welty Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The Archives worked with Welty to select the 18 images and to choose the paper and printing techniques for the final prints. As described in the documentation accompanying the portfolio: “This collection of photographs was conceived as a means of exhibiting the range and diversity of Miss Welty’s camera work of the 1930s and early 1940s. The pictures were chosen from the Eudora Welty Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History [which includes over 1000 Welty negatives] – Around seventy-five images were presented, from which Miss Welty selected the final eighteen.” – “Dating of the photographs is approximated by the type of camera used. The earliest, a Kodak 2 1⁄2 by 4 1⁄4 that used 116 roll film, dates prior to 1935. ‘Wash Day’ was made with this camera. Her second camera, a Recomar, used film packs of 3 x 4 negatives. Miss Welty used it in 1935 and 1936 during her work as a writer with the WPA. ‘A Woman of the Thirties’ is in this characteristic frame. The third camera, used in the late 30s and early 40s, was a Rolleiflex that produced a square negative on roll film. ‘Ruins of Windsor’ was made with this camera.”