Elfie Huntington Bagley

Superior Essays
Elfie Huntington Bagley

Introduction

Elfie Huntington Bagley (fig. 1), a Springville, Utah native, produced a vast number of photographs between the years of 1892 and 1949. Elfie, while primarily working in Springville, Utah, traveled the entire state and the Mountain West making photographs. Her photography tells a story of life in Utah at the turn of the twentieth century. In her work, she shows a particular interest in photographing the lives of women. Her photographs of women and girls shed light on a female culture of exploration, adventure and sisterhood in Utah during a formative time in the state’s history.

The Photographer and her Mentors

Elfie Huntington Bagley’s life is an interesting one. It reflects the difficulties of
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Bagley, another of Anderson’s employees. Elfie and Joe opened their own studio in Springville, Utah in 1903. An advertisement in the Springville Independent in November of 1903 read: “Huntington and Bagley. Portrait and landscape photographers. Pictures taken in all the latest styles. Pictures copied and enlarged. Picture frames, photo jewelry, mailing envelopes, Kodak supplies carried in stock. If you wish a picture of your home, barn, animals or anything else, let us know and we will please you.” It was from this studio and partnership that most of Elfie Huntington’s photographs would be …show more content…
She captured the lives of women who worked in the home, raised children, visited their friends and families and adventured in the great outdoor spaces of Utah. One example of her work in photographing women is her Sewing Machine (fig 2). Here, a woman sits, apparently in the studio, at a sewing machine. An apron covers her dress and she stares ahead at the camera. This photograph is posed, a stylistic choice she picked up from her actor uncle, Don Carlos Johnson, and represents a traditional chore for women. Alternatively, her 2 People and a Boat (fig. 3) . In this black and white photograph two women, wearing shortened bathing dresses with straw hats perched precariously atop their heads, are boating in a lake. One stands in the water while the other stands in the rowboat. This photograph depicts the freedom women in Utah felt to explore the outdoors. These two photographs, while depicting very different scenes, document the many roles of Utah women, and the multiple aspects of their lives, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth

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