Poe’s women never had a way out of the mad world of their creator unless it was at the hand of their men. Life, death, and everything that lay in between was determined by a man.
What if she could make her own exit, on her own accord?
This was, by far, the hardest image to capture because of the lighting. My apartment is cavelike in the early morning hours and I found myself waking up earlier and earlier to get the lighting right. Also, my mother and grandmother claim the kitchen in the mornings, so I had to shoot this ninja style.
I got lucky on the fifth day. No flash required. It was slightly overcast, yet sunny enough that the right amount of light could stream in through the kitchen window. I was originally seated in the other images, but decided on the third or fourth day that I wanted to change up the pose.
This is significant because being seated was a passive action that relented to the power of the male overseeing my subject’s day to day descent into illness. Jumping out the window is explicitly active, threatening male power and challenging the male gaze.
