Crop and Click Episode 3 – Feminism Through the Lens of Immaculate Conception

Donna Ferrato, Immaculate Conception, Northampton, 1994, archival pigment print, 30 x 24 inches, 乐播传媒 College Museum of Art, gift of Karan and Elizabeth Jain, 2018.17.2

In this episode, 乐播传媒 first-year Carly Philpott and Monmouth Academy senior Izzy Hamann use photography to dive into the rich history of women and the LGBTQ+ community in Northampton, Massachusetts. Through this, they attempt to find some context in Donna Ferrato鈥檚 1994 image of Ketta McGraw and Jaye Pope holding their first child, entitled Immaculate Conception. They cover topics such as the place of same-sex relationships in popular media and culture. Carly and Izzy also discuss the mural included in Ferrato鈥檚 photograph, which depicts women in Northampton in several centuries of women鈥檚 rights movements spanning from 1600-1980 and reinforces Ferrato鈥檚 feminist message. In order to unpack the visual meaning of this composition, an overview of women鈥檚 civil rights is covered and how minorities of race, class, and sexuality affected the future of women such as McGraw and Pope starting a family. Ferrato鈥檚 other photography will also be included in this analysis in order to compare and contrast to Immaculate Conception.

Click for a transcription and bibliography as well as images of the work’s discussed in today’s episode.

This podcast is part of the Crop and Click series featuring student research on documentary photography from our collection. 鈦燙lick for a portfolio of all the works discussed in the series.

Hosted and produced by Carly Philpott and Izzy Hamann. Cover art by Lucy Sherman ’23.