Helen M. Stummer has been called the Dorothea Lange of our time. As a chronicler of contemporary poverty, for decades she has photographed the poor, from New York City to rural Maine to Comalapa, Guatemala. “There is something about communities that are invisible and ignored that resonates with me,” she says. “I would love to take pictures of pretty things, but… return to article
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Reader Comments (1)Page 1 of 1 pagesThank you for honoring an artist who is both grounded and inspirational. My mother grew up in Brooklyn, NY but always yearned for the woods. Little did she know that she would find her way to the Maine coast and H.O.M.E. - where she learned to weave shawls and rugs on a hand loom during the year before she weaned my baby sister and found a work as a special-ed teacher. When I was ten our house burned down and we built a log cabin from trees my step-dad cut on the property. At the time the fact that both of my parents had college degrees seemed a small differentiation from the other poor white trash on our peninsula. We were all poor but not impoverished like our urban counterparts. Because of the work of a few photographers of conscience I always knew that the squallor, danger, and bleakness of urban poverty was a world away from my own. My front yard reached to the tidal shore and my back yard spanned a thousand acre tree farm (now clearcut) complete with streams, moss carpets, boulders and meadows.
The poverty I have seen in Central America, while discouraging, is no match for the projects of lower Manhattan and vicinity. At least the pueblas of Guatemala are sunk between glorious mountains and enticing jungles. The dream-lie that is fed especially to the poor of America makes it that much harder to endure the physical and mental cages they find themselves in.
The work of Helen Stummer may be hard for some to look at, but only because it asks their consciences to divert attention and resources away from self-agrandizement. For the rest of us it is a welcome reminder to appreciate the gifts that are horded by a small percentage of our planet.
Even if Ms. Stummer’s work hadn’t directly improved the lives of her subjects, they have gained the comfort that their marginalized existences have been witnessed and shared. And the eyes of the pampered have fewer frames to hide behind.
Posted by Jerome Millay on Mar 29, 2003 at 2:17 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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