Cornell University Library Digital Collections
Jealousy: Self-portrait.
- Title:
- Jealousy: Self-portrait.
- Collection:
- Images from the Rare Book and Manuscript Collections
- Creator:
- Cottrell, Honey Lee
- Date:
- Unknown
- ID Number:
- RMC2015_0335
- Catalog Record:
- 8273318
- Collection Number:
- 7822
- File Name:
- RMC2015_0335.jpg
- Work Type:
- black-and-white photographs
- Subject:
- Butch and femme (Lesbian culture)
Lesbian culture
Lesbian erotica
Cottrell, Honey Lee
- Description:
- Jealousy: Self-portrait. By Honey Lee Cottrell. One of a series. Another in the series was displayed in "Lesbian Photograph on the U.S. West Coast, 1972-1997" and described by Cottrell here: https://www.cla.purdue.edu/waaw/corinne/Cottrell.htm
"Often I take
pictures
of things that I don't want to see. Some of my images dramatize
interior
states of being like jealousy of a lover or loss when a love
relationship
ends. In these I actively recreate in front of the camera what I
don't want to see in myself. In one image from this series I had shaved
my head out of curiosity. I thought I looked beautiful. My friends
were
appalled.
Three weeks later I
went to Michigan to see my family for Christmas. My mother thought I looked
like my father's brother. My father thought I looked like his father as
a young man. I thought I looked like my brother. My brother thought I looked
weird.
In a photograph depicting
jealousy, I sandwiched a self-portrait negative with one of dried flowers
and driftwood. The combination made my hands look hairy and my chest tattooed.
I felt like something of a cross between the tattooed lady in the circus
and a thief. The look on my face is very predatory, determined and committed
to winning. As a spectator of the picture (which usually makes others feel
uneasy) I am caught by this look, whereas in the other images I am very
much looked at by outsiders and victimized within that looked-at-ness."
- Cite As:
- Honey Lee Cottrell Papers, #7822. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- Honey Lee Cottrell papers
- Box:
- Unknown
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- Held by Artist (Creator), Publisher or Artist's (Creator's) Representatives.
