The idea of a female photographer versus a male photographer never crossed my mind in reference to how the photograph affects the viewer, or how the photograph changes in it's overall meaning. When I look at Migrant Mother (Lange) or The Tenant Farmer's Wife (Evans), although I get different emotions, both are emotional because of the photographer. In the piece by Howard Singerman, people were quoted saying Lange's work is too sentimental while Evan's work is simply showing it how it is. This is what I got out of it. But I don't agree with that. I don't understand how you can look at one photograph of a woman and then at another and judge how the photographer operates, especially when they are very similar photograph's--in intent and in composition. Dorothea Lange was hired by the WPA to take photographs (which I believe were supposed to be artistic) of the way life was during the Dust Bowl, and Walker Evans did the same thing. He did it for his novel, which was for the public domain as well. Singerman also says that Lange's work is artificial and excessive. I don't understand what he means by that. Maybe he means her photos are set up before hand, while Evan's never interrupted the daily life of the people he shot. However, the picture of the family in the bedroom was set-up, just as much as any of Dorothea's could have been. I get the feeling he thinks Lange was trying to fake emotion that wasn't really present, but if anything, she just brought out the emotion that was present and allowed the audience to feel it as well. Evan's photographs do the same thing, but why is she persecuted for this?

I don't like the idea of woman photographers getting this scrutiny, so I appreciate (sort of) what Sherrie Levine did. I suppose by taking pictures of other artist's work she made people see that they were being sexist. Viewers having to step back and really consider what she was doing was probably very eye-opening at the time. I'm having a hard time fully grasping the sexism present because I don't feel that I look at works differently depending on the gender of the photographer. I am also uneasy of the idea of simply photographing someone else's work and claiming it as your own. But the interesting question of whose work that really is, is an interesting one to debate.