Aunt Geraldine, photo by Mom, Portland, Oregon, circa mid 1950s
For as long as I can remember I have documented and collected women's stories. I was influenced by my mother's family photo albums from America's Golden Era. The pearl- and heel-clad women in those images smacked of blood red lipstick and pink party dresses. Economy was flush, television took over the dinner hour and American made automobiles were the norm. Life was good, or was it? To me, it felt like a Kodak-color dream world that left an indelible impression.
Over time, my own photographs became interwoven with ideas and themes about fashion culture, beauty, societal roles and expectations placed upon women. Who were these women and what were their hopes and dreams? What challenges did they face and what were their roles —post war?
This portrait series explores role reversal. I've placed young African American women in staged southern settings wearing vintage dresses I discovered in small town thrift shops in North Carolina and Virginia. They inhabit an imagined, exclusive world that would have been inaccessible to rural women of color during that era. The dresses serve as symbols—of coming-of-age, of constrained femininity and the sisterhood of social manners pulled from the musty pages of Emily Post.
There is a debutant in white crinoline waiting for her suitor on a porch swing; a 1950s model in a fitted black cocktail dress wearing lime green Jackie O square heels; a wealthy socialite in her electric orange fortrell skirt-suit adorned with diamonds and pearls; and a young woman in her Sunday best a mint green dotted swiss dress, slipping off her white gloves as she walks the driveway of her father's antebellum plantation.
During the casting process, held at a local coffee shop, I met many young women from the African American community who became collaborators—role models of grace, beauty and strength. Through them my work evolved into a dialogue about identity, history and representation. My photographic exploration of the south has since grow deeper—more personal, more political.
When I left New York City in 2009, I entered a profoundly different way of life, one that reshaped my understanding of culture and place. The exhibition, Southern Cultures, Southern Sites was shown at the Rawls Art Museum in Franklin, Virginia.
"I hope to exhibit this work throughout the South and bring it to a broader audience in New York where I spent much of my career as a magazine and portrait photographer. Ultimately, I aspire to collaborate with a major book publisher to bring this body of work to an even wider audience."
Leeta Harding
November, 2014
Pink and Blue Prom Dresses found at auction lay in wait in my dining room, The D.A. Barnes House, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, 2014 / Magnolia, Nashville, Tennessee, 2008
Shae in Polka-Dots and Crinoline, Morning Porch, D.A. Barnes House, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, 2014
Shae, Crinoline, Guest Room & Dishes, Diningroom, The D.A. Barnes House, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, 2014
Asia in Black Cocktail Dress and Green Square Heel Pumps, Smith Farmhouse, Conway, North Carolina. 2014.
Kennedy in Fortrell Skirt-suit, Diamonds and Pearls, Church Street, Conway, North Carolina, 2014
Myrick Plantation, 2004, Como, North Carolina —a site that I would document for15yrs until it came down in a storm in 2024
Shae in Dotted Swiss, Myrick Plantation, Como, North Carolina, 2014
Stills from the upstairs bedroom at the Myrick Plantation, Como, NC, 2010
Kennedy, Satin, Velvet and Pearls, Church St, Como, North Carolina, 2014
Linda's Beauty Shop, Main Street, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, 2009 and Kennedy, Velvet, Satin, Pearls, Church Street, Conway, North Carolina, 2014
Eleesha, Blue Prom, Green Satin Heels, Downtown Conway, North Carolina, 2014
Erika, Homemade Yellow Dress and Red Checked Keds, CrackerJack, Church Street, Conway, North Carolina, 2014
Erika, Pink Sheer Dress and Cherry Red Keds, 117 A Church Street, Conway, North Carolina, 2014
Shae, Rose Tea Dress & Emily Post / Garden Roses Dining room, The D.A. Barnes House, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, 2014
Shae, Rose Shift Dress, Orange Crush, Myrick Plantation, Como, North Carolina, 2014
Black and White TV, Smith Farmhouse, Conway, North Carolina, 2014
Shae Plaid Summer Dress, Myrick Plantation, Como, North Carolina, 2014
Sweet Tea, Seaboard, North Carolina, 2009
Asia, Sears Roebuck Dress and Alabama Pin, Smith Farmhouse, Conway, North Carolina, 2014
Shae, Pink Prom Dress and Lemon Cake, The D.A. Barnes House, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, 2014
Freedom, The Myrick Plantation, Conway, North Carolina, 2014 and Magnolia, Nashville, Tennessee, 2008
Self Portraits, Apron, Scuppernong Grapevine and Red Devils Satin Jacket w/Pink Prom Dress, Leeta Harding, The D.A. Barnes House, Murfreesboro, North Carolina, 2010.