Object number1983.5
Anne Sexton
Date1961
Artist
Rosalie Thorne McKenna
(American, 1918-2003)
CultureAmerican
MediumGelatin silver print, printed 1983
DimensionsImage: 13 1/2 x 10 7/16 in. (34.3 x 26.5 cm)
Sheet: 13 15/16 x 10 7/8 in. (35.4 x 27.6 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Sheet: 13 15/16 x 10 7/8 in. (35.4 x 27.6 cm)
Matted: 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Francis Woolsey and Helen Silkman Bronson, class of 1924, Fund
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
InscribedOn verso, by artist, lower left in pencil: Anne Sexton / Newton Lower Falls, 1961; 1968; by unidentified hand, lower left corner in pencil: 83.5
MarkingsOn verso, stamped lower left: © Rollie Mc Kenna; stamped lower right: COPYRIGHTED PHOTO BY / ROLLIE McKENNA / ONE HANCOX STREET / STONINGTON, CT 06378 / TEL. (203) 535-0110/2126 / © ROLLIE McKENNA / MUST APPEAR WITH PHOTO
BibliographyRosalie Thorne McKenna, Rollie McKenna: A Life in Photography (New York: Knopf, 1991), 250.
John Malcolm Brinnin and Bill Read, The Modern Poets, An American-British Anthology (McGraw-Hill, 1963), 316.
Variant: Rollie McKenna Artists & Writers (National Portrait Gallery, London, 2001), 15.
Artists at Large: Photographs by Rollie McKenna (The Currier Gallery of Art Manchester, New Hampshire with Vassar College Art Gallery, 1982), 4. Vassar Exhibitions
Label TextIn 1950, McKenna met American poet John Malcolm Brinnin. He introduced the young photographer to many modernist poets, and their friendship spanned most of McKenna’s life. When they met, Brinnin served as director of the YM-YWHA Poetry Center, New York (today part of 92NY), where he organized McKenna’s first solo exhibition in 1951, featuring portraits of writers. Portrait photography would soon become McKenna’s bread and butter, introducing her to the literary world and establishing her decades-long career as a freelance photographer. She became known for portraits that defied convention and sought to capture real, human qualities. She scrapped the studio altogether and instead photographed people where they were most comfortable. Her portraits of writers picture them at their desks, often at home and sometimes mid-conversation, having a cigarette, or even sitting casually on the floor. Unlike traditional studio portraits, which to McKenna looked stiff, contrived, and lifeless, her pictures achieved an expressive candidness. “My objection to posed studio photographs,” she said, “is that they tend to have the stamp of the studio or the photographer, and not necessarily of the person.”
DescriptionPortrait of woman with cigarette at desk with typewriter and cup of coffeeTerms
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