art, culture and humanities
‘Hidden mother’ photos don’t erase moms − rather, they reveal the labor and love that support the child
Hidden mother photographs, depicting obscured adults supporting children, highlight Victorian culture’s focus on nurturing and the mother-child bond.
Andrea Kaston Tange, Macalester College
Collectors relish so-called “hidden mother photographs” as historical oddities.
These 19th-century images contain very young children held still by half-obscured adults who crouch behind chairs or lurk at the margins of pictures, their protective arms stabilizing babies. The heads and shoulders of the adults are sometimes draped in textiles or summarily cut off, or their bodies are partially tucked behind decorative mats that frame the centered child.
The startling realization that Victorian infants were not reclining on cozy blankets but on comfortable laps fuels breathless online attention. Eager resellers of flea-market finds advertise hidden mother photographs using terms like “spooky wonderful,” “cutie creepy” and “bizarre.” Articles about them tend to imply a treasure hunt for hiddenness – for adult knees or noses, poised hands, bosoms, hat brims and skirts.
But this common framing reduces their cultural importance to sensationalism: Look at how kooky our ancestors were!
As someone who has studied the history of these photos, I find myself drawing an unlikely connection between these stiff, sepia portraits and modern candid snapshots of mischievous children delighting their adoring mothers. Both are part of the tradition of sentimental image-making that surrounds the iconic figure of mother and child.
Exposure times in 19th-century photography were very long by current standards – 20 to 60 seconds – which helps explain why trusted adults were needed to soothe infant subjects into the stillness necessary to take a portrait. But this technological limitation doesn’t explain why their mothers were half-erased from these photos, which has led scholars to argue that Victorian women were effaced by their culture, and casual viewers to assume that the photographers who produced these visual gaffes were hilariously bad at their craft.
But my research has shown that Victorian photographers were documenting children at a moment of widespread desire to focus cultural attention – and therefore camera lenses – on childhood as a precious time that ought to be protected. And the partial obfuscation of mothers was not inconsistent with images of beloved children, because to cherish is to hold.
These are, in short, images of care.
Evolving photographic forms
Photography was a new technology in the 19th century. Early photographers coated thin metal plates with light-sensitive material, exposed them behind the camera’s lens and developed the plates through precise chemical processes. Each exposure yielded a unique and unreproducible picture directly on the metal.
The fragile daguerreotypes of the early 1840s launched a period of constant experimentation. Photographers eventually perfected sturdier tintypes – also unreproducible images on metal plates – and later revolutionized the medium with glass negatives that enabled multiple prints of the same image. These prints required special paper made light sensitive with a coating of ammonium chloride stabilized in albumen, or egg white. With this process, photography became widely viable as a profession, a hobby and an art. In the 1880s, at the height of its production, the Dresden Albumenizing Company required 60,000 eggs a day to meet worldwide demand for its high-quality photographic paper.
Comparing an 1860s tintype with an 1890s gelatin silver studio print shows the evolution of photographic processes.
The studio portrait is characterized by crisp focus, strong contrast between lights and darks, beautiful mid-tones to contour the baby’s cheek, and artful studio lighting to capture alert infant eyes and the gleam of a mother’s cuff button. The tintype is its opposite in every aspect: Its flattened quality and narrower tonal range are hallmarks of this less technically advanced photographic process.
But in both portraits, the sturdy hands of the loving mother stabilize the child.
Picturing tender connections
Scholars don’t know who was first to use the term hidden mother, although some think it emerged around 2008. A photography exhibit at the Venice Biennale by Linda Fregni Nagler and a lyric photo essay by Laura Larson, both published in 2013 and titled “Hidden Mother,” cemented the moniker, which ironically erases the children who are the focal point of these portraits.
One baby picture in particular – a tintype from the 1850s – tells a story about the development of photographic technology and its role in documenting the fleeting, tender moments of childhood.
The baby’s softness is enhanced by comparison with her mother’s strong jawline. The child’s contemplative gaze suggests deep comfort, snuggled as she is against her mother’s side. The contrast between soft and sharp focus is not just one of emotion but the effect of the little one’s slight movement during the necessarily long exposure time.
The baby’s placidity is partly attributable to the presence of a third figure in this photo. This child appears to be a twin: One of her tiny hands is covered protectively by another, equally small, at the end of another arm clad in an identical dress with braided trim. Grounded in their mother’s lap, these babies exist in a triangulated embrace that memorializes the intimacy of family connections.
Putting the original mat, with its oval cutout, back on the photo makes the baby seem to float, removing the embraces that support her. It also suggests where the moniker for these images, hidden mother, came from. But hands, bodies and the power of touch are central to such images.
Valuing the mother-child bond
Modern viewers often assume that 19th-century customs consigned mothering to the margins. But I argue that this is a projection of ahistorical ideas.
It is a strikingly modern tendency to celebrate women’s ability to have both children and careers, without accounting for how one person will then manage two full-time jobs. Such celebration obscures the labor and time parenting requires in favor of the platitude that if we do what we love, for those we love, it is not work.
Contemporary biases, I suggest, may hide mothers far more than did 19th-century portrait conventions. These images remind thoughtful viewers that babies are held and nursed, soothed and protected, nurtured and guided into independence not by abstract notions of being the right kind of mother, not by oddities, but by embodied human beings.
The historical phenomenon of hidden mothers might be productively renamed “cherished child photographs.” This label more accurately identifies their child subjects and centers the relationship, the cherishing, that is at their heart. It also offers a fruitful avenue for tender contemplation of mothers, children, and the myriad forms of motherwork and bodies who perform them, on Mother’s Day and beyond.
Andrea Kaston Tange, Professor of English, Macalester College
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
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Entertainment
Blurry, morphing and surreal – a new AI aesthetic is emerging in film
Emerging from generative AI’s quirky landscape, artists are creatively experimenting with new cinematic storytelling, blending surrealism and nostalgia, while transforming challenges into vibrant, imaginative experiences for all to enjoy.
Holly Willis, University of Southern California
Type text into AI image and video generators, and you’ll often see outputs of unusual, sometimes creepy, pictures.
In a way, this is a feature, not a bug, of generative AI. And artists are wielding this aesthetic to create a new storytelling art form.
The tools, such as Midjourney to generate images, Runway and Sora to produce videos, and Luma AI to create 3D objects, are relatively cheap or free to use. They allow filmmakers without access to major studio budgets or soundstages to make imaginative short films for the price of a monthly subscription.
I’ve studied these new works as the co-director of the AI for Media & Storytelling studio at the University of Southern California.
Surveying the increasingly captivating output of artists from around the world, I partnered with curators Jonathan Wells and Meg Grey Wells to produce the Flux Festival, a four-day showcase of experiments in AI filmmaking, in November 2024.
While this work remains dizzyingly eclectic in its stylistic diversity, I would argue that it offers traces of insight into our contemporary world. I’m reminded that in both literary and film studies, scholars believe that as cultures shift, so do the way we tell stories.
With this cultural connection in mind, I see five visual trends emerging in film.
1. Morphing, blurring imagery
In her “NanoFictions” series, the French artist Karoline Georges creates portraits of transformation. In one short, “The Beast,” a burly man mutates from a two-legged human into a hunched, skeletal cat, before morphing into a snarling wolf.
The metaphor – man is a monster – is clear. But what’s more compelling is the thrilling fluidity of transformation. There’s a giddy pleasure in seeing the figure’s seamless evolution that speaks to a very contemporary sensibility of shapeshifting across our many digital selves. https://www.youtube.com/embed/on1K_xXcjW0?wmode=transparent&start=0 Karoline Georges’ short film ‘The Beast.’
This sense of transformation continues in the use of blurry imagery that, in the hands of some artists, becomes an aesthetic feature rather than a vexing problem.
Theo Lindquist’s “Electronic Dance Experiment #3,” for example, begins as a series of rapid-fire shots showing flashes of nude bodies in a soft smear of pastel colors that pulse and throb. Gradually it becomes clear that this strange fluidity of flesh is a dance. But the abstraction in the blur offers its own unique pleasure; the image can be felt as much as it can be seen.
2. The surreal
Thousands of TikTok videos demonstrate how cringey AI images can get, but artists can wield that weirdness and craft it into something transformative. The Singaporean artist known as Niceaunties creates videos that feature older women and cats, riffing on the concept of the “auntie” from Southeast and East Asian cultures.
In one recent video, the aunties let loose clouds of powerful hairspray to hold up impossible towers of hair in a sequence that grows increasingly ridiculous. Even as they’re playful and poignant, the videos created by Niceaunties can pack a political punch. They comment on assumptions about gender and age, for example, while also tackling contemporary issues such as pollution.
On the darker side, in a music video titled “Forest Never Sleeps,” the artist known as Doopiidoo offers up hybrid octopus-women, guitar-playing rats, rooster-pigs and a wood-chopping ostrich-man. The visual chaos is a sweet match for the accompanying death metal music, with surrealism returning as a powerful form.
3. Dark tales
The often-eerie vibe of so much AI-generated imagery works well for chronicling contemporary ills, a fact that several filmmakers use to unexpected effect.
In “La Fenêtre,” Lucas Ortiz Estefanell of the AI agency SpecialGuestX pairs diverse image sequences of people and places with a contemplative voice-over to ponder ideas of reality, privacy and the lives of artificially generated people. At the same time, he wonders about the strong desire to create these synthetic worlds. “When I first watched this video,” recalls the narrator, “the meaning of the image ceased to make sense.”
In the music video titled “Closer,” based on a song by Iceboy Violet and nueen, filmmaker Mau Morgó captures the world-weary exhaustion of Gen Z through dozens of youthful characters slumbering, often under the green glow of video screens. The snapshot of a generation that has come of age in the era of social media and now artificial intelligence, pictured here with phones clutched close to their bodies as they murmur in their sleep, feels quietly wrenching.
4. Nostalgia
Sometimes filmmakers turn to AI to capture the past.
Rome-based filmmaker Andrea Ciulu uses AI to reimagine 1980s East Coast hip-hop culture in “On These Streets,” which depicts the city’s expanse and energy through breakdancing as kids run through alleys and then spin magically up into the air.
Ciulu says that he wanted to capture New York’s urban milieu, all of which he experienced at a distance, from Italy, as a kid. The video thus evokes a sense of nostalgia for a mythic time and place to create a memory that is also hallucinatory. https://www.youtube.com/embed/FKTyGJar-dE?wmode=transparent&start=0 Andrea Ciulu’s short film ‘On These Streets.’
Similarly, David Slade’s “Shadow Rabbit” borrows black-and-white imagery reminiscent of the 1950s to show small children discovering miniature animals crawling about on their hands. In just a few seconds, Slade depicts the enchanting imagination of children and links it to generated imagery, underscoring AI’s capacities for creating fanciful worlds.
5. New times, new spaces
In his video for the song “The Hardest Part” by Washed Out, filmmaker Paul Trillo creates an infinite zoom that follows a group of characters down the seemingly endless aisle of a school bus, through the high school cafeteria and out onto the highway at night. The video perfectly captures the zoominess of time and the collapse of space for someone young and in love haplessly careening through the world.
The freewheeling camera also characterizes the work of Montreal-based duo Vallée Duhamel, whose music video “The Pulse Within” spins and twirls, careening up and around characters who are cut loose from the laws of gravity.
In both music videos, viewers experience time and space as a dazzling, topsy-turvy vortex where the rules of traditional time and space no longer apply.
Right now, in a world where algorithms increasingly shape everyday life, many works of art are beginning to reflect how intertwined we’ve become with computational systems.
What if machines are suggesting new ways to see ourselves, as much as we’re teaching them to see like humans?
Holly Willis, Professor of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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art, culture and humanities
Tiff Massey’s ‘7 Mile & Livernois’ exhibition isn’t just about a neighborhood – it’s a tribute to Black Detroit
Samantha Noël, Wayne State University
“7 Mile + Livernois” at the Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Detroit as a place for Black women to live and create by elevating both the work of the featured artist, Tiff Massey, and the community from which she comes.
The exhibition draws attention to how Detroit is represented in the national – and even global – imagination.
As an art historian who specializes in modern and contemporary art of the African diaspora, I found the exhibition absolutely mesmerizing. I appreciate the ways in which the show recognizes the desire for belonging and self-expression among Black people. I also admire how the show empowers and inspires anyone who visits it.
Named for an avenue of Black fashion
Massey’s exhibition is named for her childhood neighborhood, which is also a vitally important historic, cultural and economic center of Black Detroit.
More popularly known as the Avenue of Fashion because of its many clothiers, the area near the intersection of Seven Mile Road and Livernois Avenue was an epicenter of Black commerce until the 1967 Detroit Rebellion sent shoppers to suburban malls.
A resurgence of enterprise and an increase in government funding are revitalizing the area by removing abandoned buildings and supporting redevelopment. It’s part of a citywide trend of increased investment and population growth over the past decade or so.
The exhibition poignantly explores the magnificent stylings of previous generations and how Black Detroiters draw from this tradition when they dress and accessorize today.
Throughout history, in many African diasporic communities, dressing in “Sunday’s best” was a way of asserting one’s humanity and dignity. Without question, this exhibition celebrates the importance of this cultural practice.
Monumentalizing the everyday
The exhibition features recent works plus two new sculptures by Massey commissioned by the Detroit Institute of Art. Her new work is juxtaposed with pieces from the museum’s permanent collection.
At the entrance of the exhibition, cubic forms of silver metal are interlinked and attached to the center of the outer wall of the galleries in a sculpture called “Whatupdoe” (2024), which is also a beloved greeting among Detroiters. Even bigger cubic forms emerge from the wall both in square and rectangular shapes and rest on the floor. Resembling a statement necklace, the sculpture occupies much of the gallery space.
The change in scale gives it architectural flare, bringing to mind the buildings and houses lining the streets of Detroit, and the many people living both inside and outside the buildings. The conjoined links symbolize the ties that bind the diverse neighborhoods and connect generations of people to the city.
Celebrating the built environment
“I Got Bricks” (2016) consists of serial collections of metallic blocks that are shaped like gemstones set into jewelry. The six clusters of glistening slabs echo the shapes of bricks used to build early to mid-20th century architectural structures, but are presented in geometric and varied arrangements.
The work speaks again to the notion of seeing oneself in the built environment. “I Got Bricks” suggests that neighborhoods once viewed disparagingly can be seen as sites of beauty that reflect the histories of many African American families who overcame great odds and led extraordinary lives.
“Quilt Code 6 (All Black Everything)” (2023) is a gorgeous wooden installation painted in black that encompasses iconography and design motifs from the city, as well as the artist’s archive. An Afro comb, the Cadillac logo, a pair of hot combs, the Black Panther Party logo, an Adinkra symbol, and design motifs found on building facades are some of the imagery featured on this work.
It’s positioned near mid-century sculptor, Louise Nevelson’s “Homage to the World” (1966), which also is painted black but features detritus from the streets of New York City. This juxtaposition highlights how both works employ similar compositions to convey two different worldviews, one of a African American woman born in the late 20th century and the other of a European American woman born in the late 19th century.
“I’ve Got Bundles and I Got Flewed Out (Green)” (2023) is a similar installation with an array of green and yellow hairpieces of varying textures and styles displayed on a black-hued background. The theme of artifice as integral to the beauty rituals of Black women comes to mind.
The objects conveyed in “I Remember Way Back When” (2023) and “Baby Bling” (2023) are easily identifiable for many Black women and other women of color, particularly those who were children in the 1970s and ‘80s.
The former depicts barrettes, while the latter features hair elastics with balls on each end. The 11 enlarged objects in both works are painted in stunning red and arranged horizontally, literally making a big deal of how Black girls present themselves to the world.
These nostalgic works are juxtaposed with minimalist artist Donald Judd’s vertically rendered “Stack” (1969), which uses a series of green rectangular forms to bring to mind modernist architecture.
Making art in the Motor City
Metalsmithing is closely tied to Detroit’s reign as a mecca of industry in the early 20th century. During that period, the city gained a labor force of African Americans fleeing the South, as well as immigrants from Europe, the Middle East and even Latin America and the Caribbean.
In “Fulani” (2021), “39 Reasons I am not Playing” (2018) and “Everyday Arsenal” (2018), Massey adeptly reveals how the everyday objects of self-adornment celebrated in the show share a history with the metalsmithing of the automobile industry in the Motor City.
The galleries filled with Massey’s work invite viewers to pay more attention to everyday objects and the built environment that surrounds us.
“7 Mile and Livernois” runs at the Detroit Institute of Arts through May 11, 2025. Admission is free for residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.
Samantha Noël, Associate Professor of Art History, Wayne State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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News
Discovering the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art: A New Cultural Landmark in Los Angeles
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, opening in 2026, will explore storytelling through diverse art collections, fostering connections among cultures, and promoting inclusivity and dialogue.
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
Nestled in the vibrant Exposition Park of Los Angeles, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is set to reshape our understanding of storytelling through visual art. Co-founded by the legendary filmmaker George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the museum aims to be the first institution solely dedicated to exploring the meaning and impact of narrative art, reflecting the common beliefs and values that bind society together.
The museum’s construction is progressing towards a grand opening in 2026, with its innovative 300,000-square-foot building designed by renowned architect Ma Yansong of MAD Architects. Its design takes inspiration from the natural world, featuring a biomorphic structure that mimics the relationship between trees and their surroundings. The bustling 11-acre campus will include lush gardens and parks designed by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA, infusing more than 200 trees into the landscape to create a serene gathering space for the community while promoting biodiversity.
But what truly sets the Lucas Museum apart is its ambitious collection aimed at featuring narrative art from various cultures, mediums, and historical periods. With works ranging from ancient Roman mosaics to contemporary photography, the collection invites viewers into complex dialogues about identity, society, and history. Artists like Lucas Cranach the Elder, Kerry James Marshall, and Cara Romero illustrate the extent to which art can challenge societal norms and provoke meaningful conversations.
As Sandra Jackson-Dumont, the museum’s Director and CEO, eloquently states, “Through narrative art, people from every age and background can find connections between their lives and the lives of others across eras, cultures, and regions of the globe.” This goal underscores the museum’s mission to foster inclusive dialogues and broaden the understanding between diverse communities.
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art lovingly embraces visual storytelling in all its forms, from traditional paintings and sculptures to comic art and illustrations. This multifaceted approach not only honors the rich history of narrative in art but also opens doors to contemporary practices that resonate with today’s viewers.
As construction milestones are reached, including the recent installation of unique, curved panels on the museum’s façade and the introduction of iconic landscaping elements, excitement builds for the museum’s anticipated opening. The Lucas Museum stands as a beacon of creativity, connection, and inclusivity, inviting the public to delve into the powerful narratives that shape our world.
In a society where storytelling is at the heart of human experience, the Lucas Museum aims not only to showcase art but also to ignite deeper connections and provoke thought about the world we inhabit. Mark your calendars for 2026—you won’t want to miss this extraordinary addition to Los Angeles’ cultural landscape!
Museum Link: https://lucasmuseum.org/
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STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
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