Photographer Rosalind Fox Salomon It was not until she was in her early fifties that she had the opportunity to come into her own as an artist. For this reason, the visual component of A woman I once knew – a decades-long archive of fearless self-portraits from an artist praised for her portraits of others – only begins in Salomon’s middle age. But the text of the book, written by Solomon himself, traces her life back to its origins. With a remarkable economy of language, the book paints a non-ageist life story that encompasses a range of human experiences, accompanied by images that strikingly and unapologetically emphasize the aging female form.
Solomon was initially thwarted by generational expectations from her earliest inclinations toward reflection and self-expression: she was born in 1930 into a family with traditional aspirations in Highland Park, Illinois. After throwing away her passion for reading and writing and marrying a Southern man nine years older than her, who strictly limited the axis of her career outside their family; after having two children by caesarean section and combining their upbringing with political volunteerism and local activism; after her family’s changing fortunes and the dissolution of her husband’s career, a decline in his health and the final collapse of their marriage – it was only then, at the age of 53, that Solomon decided to make his way as an artist in the world.
And she went out into the world – to the Peruvian Andes, to Kolkata, India, to parts of Zimbabwe. She produced the groundbreaking series in the late 1980s Portraits in the time of AIDSone of the first to turn his lens on the burgeoning epidemic while the political spin cycle was still firmly in denial. Fashion then assigned her to photograph Women with AIDSwith sex workers in Honduras, with her editor emphasizing that the images “must be cheerful.”
Throughout the text, Fox Solomon cites the international network of contacts and mentors who helped her gain access to some of the world’s most niche and dangerous environments. Sometimes we see glimpses of these friends and professional contacts alongside her in candid images, but the majority are of the artist alone, often naked, generally serious.
None of the images in A woman I once knew are captioned or dated, although they follow a roughly chronological progression through Solomon’s final decades. Close-up shots of her body are frequently used, sometimes with interventions such as adhesive tape or household props, often emphasizing physical features that women are used to hiding: hairy genitals, sagging breasts, a soft abdomen with the scars of multiple operations, feet disfigured by hammer toes and rotting nails. Although Solomon has made a name for herself through her willingness to turn an unerring eye on the reality of her subjects, this book is a testament to the fact that she does not hesitate to give herself the same treatment.
In 2019, the International Center of Photography awarded Fox Solomon a Lifetime Achievement Awardand she has also received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Lucie Achievement in Portraiture, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Nevertheless, her text describes self-sabotage, psychosis and the health problems that most people face, in one form or another, during their aging process, even with success and self-actualization through art. A woman I once knew is a rare portrait of an artist who sees every aspect of her life and herself as honest and worthy of attention, down to her bunions. As we collectively struggle against social and political forces that seek to limit the way women move in the world and the choices we have – including agency over our own bodies – it is powerful to witness Solomon’s determination to conquer himself and to be considered, no less important than all her other life’s work.
A woman I once knew (2024) by Rosalind Fox Solomon is published by MACK Books and is available online and through independent booksellers.
