THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL
I took the picture, Syd and Jackie in 1961, during my summer at Cejwin Camps in Port Jervis, NY. It has been on exhibit in EARLY WORKS, a travelling exhibit and online website that contains photographs taken by many notable photographers when they were children; each paired with a personal narrative recalling the memory of the experience and how it affected them. The image of Syd and Jackie reminded me why gender identity became the subject of my fine art photography and human rights the focus of my photojournalism.
I lived in Iowa City during 1969 and joined a women’s collective that was publishing an ‘underground’ newspaper, Ain’t I a Woman, (the name based on a speech given by Sojourner Truth, an emancipated slave, in 1851 at the Women’s Convention in Akron Ohio.) At that time, it was one of five counter-culture newspapers published by women across the US.
The Ain’t I a Woman collective published some of the significant and radical papers about race, class and gender including The Women Identified Woman. The redefinition of women’s roles took on political meaning when it challenged the distribution of power in society.
“I like to think that perhaps we are now at our darkest hours,” Daw Suu told me, “but it is always darkest before dawn. By intimidation the authorities have tried to keep people from taking any interest in politics but you cannot stay away from politics because politics will not stay away from you. It will follow you everywhere.” Aung San Suu Kyi was released in 2010, and in 2012 was elected to the National Assembly.
