~Emmanuela~ has added a photo to the pool:
after alfred eisenstaedts "black-eyed veil: lilly daché hat and veil" (1937)
schoolchildren around the u.s. today are paying money to wear hats in classes in an effort to provide aid to earthquake survivors in haiti.
i was grumbling a bit about that in my generic did howard zinn live and die for nothing? kind of way but erin did a really lovely and inspiring photo for the flickr group hats for haiti and . . . well erin herself is lovely and inspiring. i thought to look at the compassionate element of the process rather than the cynical (though remembering the life of howard zinn also ranks as compassionate in my worlds).
millinery is one of my secret loves. as im more of a conceptual artist than a photographer—and because i truly detest self-portraiture—i had to conceive of why i would do a shoot about . . . hats and haiti. that took half the night. literally.
one of the notions to which i continually returned was this bombardment of media attention related to "saving" the survivors in haiti. (yes this is the part where i come full circle mm hmm.) does anyone else recall condi rice stepping up after the tsunami hit the indian ocean just about exactly five years ago welcoming that "diplomatic opportunity" for the u.s. then forwarding her notion of "transformational diplomacy"? oh. mm hmm.
now theres talk of "manifest destiny" spreading its hegemonic buttah over the carribe . . . cuz we all know them haitians would be better off with a lil imperialism. um. condi and crew done started that route back in the old administration with the New Embassy Compound in Port au Prince riiight?
so i revamped the style of one of the worlds leading milliners lilly daché who created headwear for royalty and hollywood stars. this is a bit of an inversion of her "black-eyed veil" piece for which an unnamed model was photographed by alfred eisenstaedt in 1937. ms. dachés veil is fabulously intricate as you can see here.
mine is a bit of net with a white appliqué flower from my five-year-olds bedroom wall. the "hat" is a long scarf bundled and molded in the shape of a Che beret. daché put a rather feminine trim on her veil; i left mine unadorned to represent the "hurricane fences" along the u.s.-mexico borderlands.
heres to you haiti: this is my first flag of the series. long may you stand as so many of us do: undivided no matter the fragmentations.
and heres to you beloved mr. zinn. you are already missed.
self-portrait with hat and veil made from found objects. 30 january 2010.
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