Author Description

A beautiful hardbound book of 35 full color photographs by Francie Bishop Good with an in depth essay by Roni Feinstein. For the past several years as a cental part of her artistic production, Francie Bishop Good has created photographs that use the image of her niece, Carly, as their point of focus. This ongoing body of work, which today consists of more than 250 finished photographs, comprises a variety of pictural forms. As they extend over time, the photographs chronicle Carly's passage from a child of about seven, through puberty, to young womanhood, Carly now being about sixteen. The photographs also stand as a prolonged meditation on the relationship of a young girl to the culture at large. They imagine a girl's attempt to locate and define herself, her uniqueness and individuality, against the onslaught of images and information received from the mass media and elsewhere. In some of the photographs, Bishop Good creates scenarios in which Carly is variously juxtaposed with images drawn from television shows, newscasts and advertising, as well as from the history of art. At times, she is paired with well-known political figures and celebrities. In other types of work, Carly is set in real-world situations that expose and exploit female sterotypes. Each photograph presents a richly textured tableau that is comelling and multlayered, both in subject matter and technique.