Eudora Welty’s Visionary Modernity

This chapter explores Eudora Welty's experimentation with photography using modern technology. She photographed Mississippi when photography as an art form was still a controversial topic. Welty rejected the earlier conventions of photography with poses and backdrops. The chapter also includes Doris Ulmann's argument against pictorialism as she was also against choreographed photography. It gives comparisons between Ulmann and Weltry's style of photography in terms of subject, light, and framing. Welty's style of photography is referred to as snapshot. She has been compared to Berenice Abbott as they both photograph cityscapes. However, Welty was into recording cultural history, while Abbott mainly focused on architectural history.