Inner Feeling | Photos by Consuelo Kanaga, 1930s-1950s
Consuelo Kanaga, Untitled, 1930s
Consuelo Kanaga, Young Girl, Tennessee, 1948
Consuelo Kanaga, Untitled, 1940s
Consuelo Kanaga, Two Women, Harlem, 1930s
“I would sacrifice resemblance any day to get the inner feeling of a person.”
Consuelo Kanaga, 1894-1978
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“I could have done lots more, put in much more work and developed more pictures, but I had
also a desire to say what I felt about life. Simple things like a little picture in the window
or the corner of the studio or an old stove in the kitchen have always been fascinating to me.
They are very much alive, these flowers and grasses with the dew on them. Stieglitz always said,
“What have you got to say?” I think in a few small cases I’ve said a few things, expressed how I
felt, trying to show the horror of poverty or the beauty of black people. I think that in photography
what you’ve done is what you’ve had to say. In everything this has been the message of my life.
A simple supper, being with someone you love, seeing a deer come around to eat or drink at the
barn – I like things like that. If I could make one true, quiet photograph, I would much prefer
it to having a lot of answers.”
Consuelo Kanaga
