Organic Drapery
Organic Drapery. Cordless Roller Shades
Organic Drapery
- Of, relating to, or denoting compounds containing carbon (other than simple binary compounds and salts) and chiefly or ultimately of biological origin
- (of food or farming methods) Produced or involving production without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial agents
- a fertilizer that is derived from animal or vegetable matter
- being or relating to or derived from or having properties characteristic of living organisms; “organic life”; “organic growth”; “organic remains found in rock”
- Of, relating to, or derived from living matter
- relating or belonging to the class of chemical compounds having a carbon basis; “hydrocarbons are organic compounds”
organic
- cloth gracefully draped and arranged in loose folds
- The artistic arrangement of clothing in sculpture or painting
- curtain: hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window)
- Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles (Old French drap, from Late Latin drappus). It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothing, formerly conducted by drapers.
- Long curtains of heavy fabric
- Cloth coverings hanging in loose folds
drapery
Anne Brigman, 1869–1950, The Dying Cedar, 1906
Source: Merry A. Foresta. American Photographs: The First Century (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art with the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996).
Anne W. Brigman, born in Hawaii in 1869 was known for her artistically posed Nudes in the Sierra Navada landscape of northern California. After moving to California in her late teens, Brigman originally trained as a painter, but turned to Photography in 1902. As a Pictorialist, Brigman posed her photographs defusing reality for aesthetic and emotional impact, while drawing on her knowledge of artistic traditions in painting. Using herself and friends as models, Brigman posed her figures with organic and natural objects, emphasizing the paralleling sources of energy of women and nature. Using her knowledge of the darkroom and developing process, Brigman would often touch-up her negatives with paints and pencils, or manipulate the photographs to create a more desired aesthetic, often dramatic appeal. Brigman was a member of the San Francisco Camera Club, celebrating the distinguished amateur photographers, and also became a fellow of Alfred Stieglitz’s Photo-Secession group in New York. As she became more widely known, Brigman was often falsely accused of staging her photographs in the studio, by those unfamiliar with the California landscape. A poet and one of America’s most brilliant female photographers, Anne W. Brigman died in Eagle Rock, California in 1950.
Beloved Earth… I am weary of your mighty clasp.
Life Crowds… I am exhausted with the stern decree
Of your relentless, aging binding, bending grasp…
Beloved Earth… (Selected lines from Brigman’s poem “Cry,” describing the above photograph).
The Dying Cedar, 1906, one of Brigman’s earlier works as a photographer, demonstrates her skill in creating a beautiful image accentuating the parallels of femininity and the seductive qualities of a ragged and unique landscape. The arms of the female figure are carefully posed to emphasize the curving branch of the weathered tree, creating three diagonals that continue and repeat again in the upper half of the photograph. The dark line of the fallen drapery on the female nude again re-emphasizes the importance of diagonals in the photograph, a quality highly valued in Pictorial photography. The relatively dark image enjoys a wide range of mid tones, interrupted nicely by a “divine” light in the foreground, used to highlight the figure and trunk of the tree. This scene is elegantly dramatic, calling to our attention the importance of the relationship and form of the female figure and the twisting tree.
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