Below are  a set of four photos I decided to enter. I had never given any thought to naming these photos until I was asked to do so for the submission form. I think I got a little carried away with the names, then I felt like I had to explain how I came up with them which led to an very involved write up.

Meek Maggie 

Maggie was photographed during a visit to the York Castle Museum in York, England.

This little girl locked away in an old museum with her downcast eyes, weak smile, unkempt hair, tattered dress and smudged nose deserves a proper British name. Maggie means pearl, and she, like all roughed up little girls  the world over, are priceless in value.

York’s slums of old were difficult for poor little Pearls, especially during the industrial revolution.

Stephen Crane’s Maggie: a Girl of the Streets, (1893) takes place not in this old York, but in far away New York. Crane’s Maggie works in a Bowery shirt factory, but she can’t get ahead because of her mother’s drunken rages. She succumbs to a life of prostitution and ends up taking her own life.

In contrast, our incarcerated old York Maggie exhibits patient endurance, a another definition of meek,  gentleness and humility.

Proud Victoria

Victoria was photographed on a swanky street in Richmond, England, a high-rent neighborhood near London.

Richmond has been the playground for royalty for hundreds of years. It’s near the Royal Botanical gardens and Hampton Court, one of King Henry the VIII’s favorite palaces. I imagine the dark, reflected shadows of winter trees which obscure her veil, might echo Henry’s matrimonial curse.

Victoria is Maggie’s opposite. She has perfect features and a haughty aloofness. All her parts are carefully constructed,  fitted together and posed. She’s  self-reliant, ambitious, and assertive. She is very posh, like her British namesake Victoria Beckham, a.k.a Posh Spice, the spokeswomen of 1990s Girl power. What a difference a hundred years makes.

Pride can have a “darker” side as we will see with our next lady.

Imprudent Belladona

Belladonna was photographed in Venice, Italy.

The herb Belladonna is  highly poisonous and hallucinogenic. It is also also known as deadly nightshade. It is common to Europe and often grows in ruins. An Italian name, it means “beautiful lady” and the name may have originated from its usage by women from Roman times on to dilate their pupils, which they believed made them appear more dreamy and desirable. Overuse could cause irreparable damage to the eyes, blindness or death, making Belladonna a suitable name for a vacant-eyed party-girl mask.

Noble Sophia

Sophia was photographed in Raleigh, at the Historic Oakwood Cemetery.

Sophia means wisdom in Greek.  She is the opposite of Belladonna in character and presence.  Her eyes are molded metal and meet us directly and intensely.

She is eternal. For now, her angel wings are rigid and unmoving. She stands resolute among the dead, but has a message for the the preceding three ladies.

She offers them words of warning and encouragement from Proverbs,

For waywardness kills the
simple,
and the complacency of fools
destroys them;
but those who listen to me will
be secure
and will live at ease, without
dread of disaster.

Proverbs 1:32-33

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