A Woman I Once Knew
Rosalind Fox Solomon
Throughout her life as photographer, Rosalind Fox Solomon made self-portraits. Over five decades Solomon studied the evolution of her aging body and embraced the self-estrangement her camera affords. At the age of 94, A Woman I Once Knew brings these self-portraits together alongside extended texts by Solomon to form a unique work: a visual autobiography. Ambitious in the combination of image and text. Solomon’s writings allude to the periodic depressions and euphoric experiences in other cultures that defined her extraordinary life and shaped her empathetic approach to photography.
Rosalind Fox Solomon (1930 – 2025) was an American artist based in New York City and celebrated for her exceptional photographic portraits. Traveling the world, she became renowned for her unflinching photography of everyday life around the world. She was born in 1930 in Highland Park, Illinois. She worked for the Experiment in International Living, a program of international cross-cultural education for high school including exchange programs. In 1968 her work brought her to Japan, where she stayed with a family near Tokyo. Unable to speak the language, she began to use a camera to express her feelings and thoughts. This was the starting point of her photographic practice. In the 1970s she studied with Lisette Model.
The self-portraits in A Woman I Once Knew are far from glamorous. A sizeable portion of the self-portraits are nudes. Depictions of the nude female figure join a tradition of aesthetic espectations and impossible ideals. As shown for instance by Carla Williams in Tender. Solomon’s self-portraits begin even when she was in her forties and extend into her nineteens.
The written passages sketch Solomon’s life. As a photographer she was a late bloomer. She began at thirty-eight, while living in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her work has never gained widespread acclaim. Her books have had always an unsettling effect. The same applies to A Woman I Once Knew. She talks about her depressions. But at the end of the book she finds the right medication. And finally, at age ninety-four, things clear up.
A Woman I Once Knew
Photographer: Rosalind Fox Solomon
Published by Mack in 2024
Paperback with tipped-in image
26 x 38 cm, 264 pages
Shortlisted for the 2024 Paris Photo – Aperture Photobook of the Year award
Shortlisted for the Kraszna – Krausz Photography Book Award 2025
Winner of the Les Rencontres d’Arles Photo-Text Book Award 2025