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Remember the Ladies
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Remember the Ladies Lisa M. Sadler MA SustainablePhotographyStrategies PHO730 Dr. Gary Penryn,FalmouthMcLeodUnivesityCornwall 5
Statement of Intent
Upheld for nearly half a century, the constitutional right to abortion came to a halt on June 24, 2022, by the United States Supreme Court. This reversal of Roe v. Wade means abortion rights will roll back to nearly half of the 50 states and soon restrictions will be imposed on the female reproductive system. The feelings of shock, rage, fear and hopelessness consumed my subconscious. To escape and decompress, I retreated to the wooded battlefields of my hometown, where I started noticing the inconsistencies in my surroundings and the scenery appeared foreign. These federally protective areas no longer resembled the peaceful terrains I would often seek for sanctuary. Unkept and overgrown, invasive plants such as bamboo, vines and weeds, now choke the female landscape I called mother. This sacred ground, where the Revolutionary War ended and the U.S. began, is supposed to symbolize freedom from tyranny, independence and equality; but now echoes the treatment of women who pioneered during that time. Property, that's all she is, that’s all she was. A tourist attraction created to be the shadow of man's accomplishments. Her rights were raped, just like the land before her. Suffering from male oppression, she's now considered nothing but an object for pleasure.
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Lisa M. Sadler August 7, 2022
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While re-evaluating gender inequalities during colonial times and women's roles in these social conditions, I examine the landscapes juxtaposed with the oppression and discrimination from a patriarchal society. I want to bring awareness to the hypocrisy of our past and present. The photographs selected are a combination of film and digital photography. The digital images are experimentations created with a ten-stop neutral density filter. In an attempt to dominate the narrative, the filter allows me to control the light and add more obscurity to the images. The film images were taken with a pinhole camera and colorized with an artificial intelligence program. The colorization exhibits a sense of melancholy and nostalgia, placing the viewer back in time. The light leaks are a reminder of the ghosts trapped in this once blood-soaked land. To accompany this body of work, I selected excerpts from a letter written by Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams, while he served in the Continental Congress. This correspondence dates March 31 – April 5, 1776, several months before the Declaration of Independence was composed and signed. The words of Mrs. Adams bring forth a sense of discontent while learning that like the nature of war, not much has changed in the last two centuries.
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13 I wish you would ever write me a Letter half as long as I write you; and tell me if you may where your Fleet are gone?
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17 I have sometimes been ready to think that the passion for Liberty cannot be Eaquelly Strong in the Breasts of those who have been accustomed to deprive their fellow Creatures of theirs.
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21 I long to hear that you have declared an independency -and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.
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27 Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could.
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33 If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.
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41 That your Sex are Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute, but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend.
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Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity.
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49 Men of Sense in all Ages abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex.
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57 Regard us then as Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness.
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63 IAdieu.need not say how much I am Your ever faithfull Friend.
Lisa M. Sadler © 2022
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