Woman as Creator
There is a saying among the Huron Indians that explains their belief in creation. It is “When the divine woman was buried, all of the plants needed for life on earth sprang from the ground above her”. Many American Indian tribes talk about the idea of Mother Earth, and its life giving properties. Using this belief in the idea of a divine woman, I have created a series of images that combine the life giving properties of both earth and women. In this series, I physically and symbolically combined the earth and women as a metaphor for the concept of Woman as Creator.
I took photos of women from all walks of life and included elements of earth’s creation in the images. My subjects are photographed holding flowers or dried plants that represent the earth’s ability to grow life. I took photos only of the torso of each woman to represent the universality of all women, and physically and symbolically it is from woman that new life is created in the way of children. All of the subjects are covered with either dirt or products grown from the earth to give the images a very earth like feel. It is through the use of flowers, plants and dirt on the women’s torsos that I am depicting the theme found in many American Indian cultures of Mother Earth or the Divine female Creator. Each woman in the photo becomes not just someone who can bear life in the way of children, but in a more universal theme that the earth is also a creator of life.
