Man in Mirror, West Oakland

Description

Both Joanne Leonard and Joel Meyerowitz use mirrors and windows to expand our perspective on domestic spaces. An active feminist in the early 1970s, Leonard was keenly aware of shifting expectations of women's and men's social roles, especially as they played out in the family home. In these two photographs she explores the power dynamics of looking by depicting a nude man in the private acts of grooming and sleeping - activities historically found in images of nude women made by male artists.

Meyerowitz, too, focuses on the domestic sphere in his photographs, many of which were made in the beachside resort town of Provincetown, Massachusetts, on the northern tip of Cape Cod. His studies of the subtle variations of light and color on Cape Cod are some of the first uses of color photography outisde of the advertising industry. This image depicts Meyerowitz's upstairs bedroom. In it, an antique standing mirror and the light streaming in from the adjacent window conjure up an air of quiet nostalgia.