A Yellow Rose Project 2.0
Serendipity reigns! One hundred and six years after the ratification of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote we received the exact number of reactions and reflections as the original YRP - 106 image submissions!
On International Women’s Day we reconvened at the Leica Gallery Boston for a collective photo share of the 106 images submitted by a geographically expansive group of women photographers who heeded the call to make their own Yellow Rose Project image. Traveling from surrounding states of New England we formed an intimate community of storytellers, lookers and listeners. Shared by several present participants were their behind-the-scenes narratives of how and why they composed their image in response to the 19th amendment.
We celebrated creativity and community, we honored the tenacity of the women who carried this struggle before us. We discussed our awareness and concern as we carry a responsibility to steward these rights forward for future generations.
The experiences which fueled these image creations were personal and poignant — ranging from racial exclusion to sexual violence. We held space for each submitted image, hearing from those present and reading the artist statements by those who submitted but were not able to attend. Family archives were activated, on-going activism captured and the impactful use of self portraiture spoke to the potential of healing as truths are illuminated given witness.
I am thrilled to share the PDF the 106 submissions compiled of by the Leica Gallery Director, Bell Pitkin. Thank you Bell for a lovely curated selection, and for your sensitive reading of accompanying statements. Please explore this rich archive and read the text written alongside this strong and varied work from an array of talented women image-makers.
Rachel Michelle Gunter in her A YRP book essay writes: “No victory or loss is complete.” As I noted on our podcast with the YRP panel we sit on a realistic knife edge of hope and despair. It is collective action that has created equal voting rights and now more than ever we aware that rights won need to be consistently protected. We are all called to awareness and action.
The end of March offered a stunning paradox in the on-going fight for rights and justice for all. March 25th was the 61st anniversary of the march from Montgomery to Selma Alabama led by Martin Luther King that resulted in the passage of the Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Johnson in August 1965 to eliminate racial discrimination in voting. While also last week we witnessed a stunning and very frightening reversal of rights for women at the United Nations by the United States. The U.S. was the sole country to veto the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women’s annual “Agreed Conclusions”. It is the first time in 70 years these basic global rights for women were not passed with general consensus.
On a personal note I was moved to tears when it was my turn to share my image as the impact of witnessing the vulnerability and strength of this gathering plus the wrap of a formidable collaborative effort hit me. My image is a composite of a single yellow rose, severed and in snow, with a photo of my mother, Margaret, and me on her 80th birthday. A favorite photo it poignantly is our final photo together. I wanted to honor her legacy, born as a first generation immigrant a few years after ratification as the only female in a family with 6 older brothers. She cherished her ability to be college educated and to work professionally. She held the position of President of our local League of Women Voters chapter, an off shoot of the organizing associations of the suffrage movement. She was was an active campaigner and voting poll worker her entire life. Her often quoted quip, “it’s a man’s world.” reflects the suffragist claim, “It’s a man’s world, unless women vote.”
