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A woman at the bottom left corner covered in Spanish moss sits by a large oak tree.
Becoming One For a Moment with the Live Oaks
A woman at the bottom left corner covered in Spanish moss sits by a large oak tree.
A woman at the bottom left corner covered in Spanish moss sits by a large oak tree.
Becoming One For a Moment with the Live Oaks, Maria von Matthiessen, 1997, black and white print, Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, © 2018 by Malte von Matthiessen.

Becoming One For a Moment with the Live Oaks

Artist (American, 1944 - 2001)
Date1997
MediumBlack and white print
DimensionsSheet: 20 × 16 inches (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Portfolio/Series"The Magical Self: African-American Hairdos in Savannah" series
Credit LineMuseum purchase.
Object number2001.11.23
On View
Not on view
Copyright© 2018 by Malte von Matthiessen. The images and text contained on this page are owned by Telfair Museums or used by the Museum with permission from the owners. Unauthorized reproduction, transmission or display of these materials is prohibited with the exception of items deemed “fair use” as defined by U.S. and international copyright laws.Label TextMaria von Matthiessen was already an established photographer when she visited Savannah in the early 2000s. Her trip inspired a new body of work focused on the artistry and African heritage expressed in the hairdos of local women. Working with Black hair artists, makeup artists, and models from the community, she curated elaborate compositions where hairdos would overlap, intertwine, or echo parts of Savannah's natural and built landscape. This photograph belongs to a series of 30 pictures that featured local landmarks like the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters, Colonial Park Cemetery, Laurel Grove Cemetery, the First Baptist Church, Tybee Island, and the Olde Pink House, and were displayed as a group at the Telfair Academy in 2001.
Collections
A woman with moss covering her head peering between two knotty tree trunks.
Maria von Matthiessen
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A woman with a large blonde coiffure draped in strands of beads.
Maria von Matthiessen
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A woman standing by a fountain with a church spire in the background on the right.
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A woman wearing white facial paint around her eyes and crowned with a large coiffure of hair en…
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A woman wrapped in foil standing in front of the fountain in Forsyth Park.
Maria von Matthiessen
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A partial shot of a woman with a large coiffure shaped into interlaced rigid curving strands em…
Maria von Matthiessen
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A girl peeking from behind an iron gate adorned with angels.
Maria von Matthiessen
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Two women in the bottom left corner and a third in the background, all wearing wheat headdresse…
Maria von Matthiessen
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A black and white photograph of a landscape with an Oak tree in the left foreground with the br…
Jack Leigh
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A woman wears a tall hairdo mimicking the alternating bands of the lighthouse behind her.
Maria von Matthiessen
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