Details

Title

The Florid Dress

Artist/Maker

Clarence John Laughlin (American, 1905–1985)

Date

1941, printed 1979

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Contact the museum for more information

Credit

Gift of Lucinda W. Bunnen for the Bunnen Collection

Accession #

1981.72

On View

Currently not on view

Laughlin wrote that this photograph “takes us to the simple whitewashed cabin, on a Louisiana bayou, of Mrs. Ida Turner, descendant of slaves. She is wearing a floral pattern that contrasts boldly with the sunlit wood. Below hangs the chain to which the cow is usually tied and the tub at which the pigs are fed—playing parts in the design of the picture, as they do in the life of Ida Turner herself.” Laughlin regularly photographed the African American men and women who lived and worked on former plantations around New Orleans to celebrate their resolve and dignity.

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