August Celebrates Gertrude Käsebier

The key to artistic photography is to work out your own thoughts, by yourselves. Imitation leads to certain disaster. New ideas are always antagonized. Do not mind that. If a thing is good it will survive.”

Gertrude Käsebier

Chasing Art is dedicating the month of August to Gertrude Käsebier, the legendary photographer who captured the history of her time in photos.  Born in 1852, her timeline included the American Civil War, the abolition of slavery, the women’s suffrage movement, WWI and the beginnings of the Great Depression. The same year of her birth, Britain recognized the independence of Transvaal (South Africa) and bade farewell to the Duke of Wellington in a grand state funeral.  The Philippines launched the peso into circulation, Louis Napoleon became emperor in France, and Catholics were given the right to organize by the Dutch government. Back in Gertrude Käsebier’s native country, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published.  And Emma Snodgrass was arrested in Boston for wearing pants.

Gertrude Käsebier had a unique way of looking at the world.  Her photos create stories that resonate within our hearts and minds. She accepted her responsibilities of a wife and mother even as she fearlessly pursued her artistic calling.