Groep vrouwen aan het werk op het land before 1899

Hildegard Lehnert made this photograph of women working in a field sometime before her death in 1943. This image and others appear to have been printed in a book or journal of photography. Taken in Germany, it seems to have been made to illustrate the experience of rural women who work the land. But what is striking to the modern eye is the way in which it aestheticizes that experience. Here we see a kind of social realism. The act of photographing working women elevates a social class that was typically excluded from the aesthetic sphere. At the same time, it doesn't offer any social critique. Are these women sharecroppers, working someone else's land? Or do they own the property? The image doesn't say. Understanding the image requires knowing the context in which it was made and circulated, and further research would be needed to understand its institutional setting.