Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue

Amy Jorgensen’s series Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue addresses the continuing relevance of the women’s rights movement since its inception in 19th century England to its robust manifestations today. In 1913 the Criminal Records Office of Scotland Yard dispersed to its officers surveillance images of eighteen suffragettes. The historic images are transferred onto vintage handkerchiefs and rendered in cyanotype prints, an early 19th century photographic process instantly recognizable for its brilliant cobalt blue color, and popularized by Anna Atkins, the first female photographer. Inspired by her ancestor, Edna Berg, a suffragette in New York City in the early part of the 20th century, Jorgensen explores modes of women’s protest via themes of oppression, surveillance, and the construction of female identity through generational traditions of intimacy and exchange among women.