Redefining Frances Benjamin Johnston’s “Self Portrait” Allegory In Potteryscape

This study of Potteryscape1 is premised on an 1895 photograph by Frances Benjamin Johnston, titled “Self Portrait”. Frances, an acclaimed portraitist and prolifically successful nineteenth century photographer was one of the very few female pioneers and crusaders of creative photography, with well over two thousand classically inspired, commissioned and commercialized photographic remains. Epic and artistic as these remains were, “Self Portrait” stood out for this study, simply for its Potteryscaping2 ambience, which was hitherto under played for it feminist allegory. This piece is arguably Frances’ most celebrated inspired photography. Interestingly, the domain of “Self Portrait” is yet clarified but misconstrued for figure, perhaps for the prevailing Porphyrian sentiment of the time, which gave primacy to man as the ultimate standard. A gap this study hoped to resolve through cursory overview of photography, critical analysis of the piece from modernist cum art perspective and technically visualised its Potteryscapingness3. It consequently, appropriates Potteryscape as pragmatic genre for Frances Benjamin Johnston’s “Self Portrait” and related photographs.