The first book is:
About Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph
I had a hard time growing up and going to middle school in Fairfield CT. My mother always encouraged my pursuit in art, and before I entered my first year of high school my mom moved us to New Haven CT so that I could attend an art high school. The first class I attend at my new school was a photography class. When my mother saw my growing interest in in taking photo she got me the Diana Arbus book.
I remember looking through the pages and being amazed at the emotion and desperation in the pictures. I was hooked on photography after that!
Here are some selections of her photos.
Here are some selections of her photos.
The second book is:
The Second Sex By Simone de Beauvoir
The Second Sex By Simone de Beauvoir
This was required reading for a class in French Feminism at MICA. As I read the book I felt a sense of awakening sadness. I had always assumed I was a feminist because I was a woman and I declared myself a feminist. But learning about the struggle of being a women, and what it truly is to be female, blew me away. Even though the book was written close to a century ago during the second wave of feminism the book is still very relevant today. The famous quote from the book still lingers in my mind "one is not born a woman, but becomes one".
