Malissa Crawford, St. Gabriel, Louisiana
May 28, 1999
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print on aluminum
Dimensions
image/plate: 12.7 × 10.2 cm (5 × 4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Julia J. Norrell, in Honor of Claude Simard and the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art
Accession Number
2014.177.175
Art Historical Context
Deborah Luster's *Malissa Crawford, St., Louisiana* (1999) captures an intimate portrait of its subject in a small-scale gelatin silver print mounted on aluminum, measuring just 5 × 4 inches. This compact format invites close viewing, emphasizing the personal and direct gaze typical of Luster's documentary-style photography. Created at the close of the 20th, the work reflects the artist's interest in individuals from Louisiana's rural communities, with St. Gabriel—a small town along the Mississippi River—evoking the region's deep cultural and historical ties to the American South. The medium ...
About the Artist
Deborah Luster
Deborah Luster, born in 1951 in Bend, Oregon, grew up in Northwest Arkansas and later made her home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with additional time spent in Galway, Ireland. Her path to photography was profoundly shaped by personal tragedy: the 1988 murder of her mother, which prompted her to take up the medium as a means of processing grief and exploring violence's aftermath. Luster attended the ...