Summer Days

William B. Post created "Summer Days" with a platinum print, a process prized for its soft tonal range, sometime near the turn of the 20th century. Post was part of a Photo-Secessionist movement that advocated for photography as fine art. Here, a woman adorned in a large hat and puffed sleeve blouse, typical of the period, is the picture of feminine leisure. Seated in a rowboat decorated with flowers, she delicately touches the water, where water lilies float. The mood is serene, a moment of peace. But turn-of-the-century leisure was not available to all. It was largely the domain of white, middle, and upper-class women. As we consider this image today, it is a window onto both the history of photography as an art form and the complex social dynamics of a time when labor and leisure were distributed unequally across lines of gender, race, and class. It also represents a universal feeling, the desire for a respite from labor.