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Photography © The Estate of Doris Ulmann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... Ulmann (1884-1934) was an American photographer, best known for her photographs of the people of Appalachia made between 1928 and 1934.Ulmann grew up in New York City, where she graduated from the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Ulmann also graduated from the Clarence H. White School of Modern Photography.Other students of the school who went on to become notable photographers include Margaret Bourke-White, Anne Brigman, Dorothea Lange, Paul Outerbridge, and Karl Struss.The folk singer and composer John Jacob Niles took four trips to Appalachia as an assistant to Ulmann, during which time he collected and documented many traditional songs.Doris Ulmann preserved the rural cultures of the southeastern United States through her photographs. She worked particularly in the "Southern Highlands" of the Appalachian Mountains, creating portraits of the residents. In 1933, she contributed photographs to Roll, Jordan, Roll, a book by novelist Julia Peterkin about the vanishing black culture, known as Gullah, of the South Carolina islands and coastal areas. In collaboration with musician, actor, and folklorist John Jacob Niles, she made what Niles called annual "folklore and photographic expeditions" to the Southern Highlands between 1928 and 1934.Ulmann's equipment was somewhat cumbersome and old-fashioned for her time. She most often used a 6½ x 8½ inch, tripod-mounted view camera, although the lightweight, hand-held camera was more prevalent, and she produced soft-focus platinum prints. The muted, warm tonality of the platinum image was a gentle complement to her respectful, sympathetic portrayals of subjects whose lives were different from her own.

Channel: Education Uploaded: November 30, 1999 at 12:00 am Author: Cybelephotography

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