Mommy Longlegs Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is "Maman", a “pregnant” brown recluse spider created by American sculptor, Louise Bourgeois. It stands 4 stories high and is made of 9 tons of bronze. The sculpture is a dedication to her mother. Here is why: "The artist notes on one of her drawings that she associates spiders with her mother: “Because my best friend was my mother and she was also intelligent, patient, clean and useful, reasonable, subtle and as indispensable as a spider. She was able to look after herself.” For Bourgeois, the spider develops into a strong feminine presence, showing us how to conquer fear." No adjustment were done on the photo.

swallace, jhaider, gadinga, bertolucci, green, nwoehnl has marked this note useful

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swallace (972) 2004-03-22 14:48

Wow, I thought it was real spider when I saw the thumbnail. Very clear image, very nice note. Thanks for sharing it with us :-)

amrinolastname (220) 2004-03-22 15:05 [Comment]

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gadinga (606) 2004-03-22 15:51

I love that you chose to make the spider fill and overflow from the frame. You have managed to create some beautiful negative spaces using the sky as a backdrop. Nice angle and good note.

bertolucci (11976) 2004-03-22 16:42

A good angle on a remarkable sculpture. The tight crop is well chosen.... and I thought when I first saw the thumbnail that you had zoomed in on an art-deco detail of a building ;-) Well seen!

green (1007) 2004-03-22 21:22

My french chauvinism got me to write the following:
Louise Bourgeois was born in 1911 in Paris (France). Eventhough she emmigrated to the USA in 1938 as many other European surrealistic artist did, she's still French to me ;-).

Anyhow, you've beautifully capture one of the master piece of one of my favourite artist. And you wrote a concise but precise and very good note about the sculpture "Maman".
Well done.

nwoehnl (118) 2004-03-24 6:55

I'm very glad to learn this is not a real spider, otherwise I'd be slightly worried as to how you obtained this shot, Donna ;-) A quite impressive angle, and an original way to showcase the details of this sculpture. I like how the legs are reaching out to the borders of your frame, and how you used the plain blue sky as a backdrop - not only does it contrast in a fine way, but it also doesn't distract in any way from the sculpture. Very good shot.