No. 4: Freshwater Mermaid

Grete Stern was commissioned to create the Dreams photomontages as photographic illustrations for a weekly column, “Psychoanalysis Will Help You,” in Idilio (Idyll), a pioneering Argentinian women’s magazine. Its readers submitted written descriptions of their dreams which were analyzed by two male intellectuals and illustrated by Stern. While incorporating some suggestions from two men, Stern often subverted their interpretations, substituting her own proto-feminist reactions to the dream narratives.

A vertically oriented black-and-white photomontage depicts a woman with medium-light skin tone from the chest up, wearing a strapless patterned garment and a bracelet. She appears to emerge from an oversized snail shell, resting her chin on her hands with elbows on sandy ground. She has dark, wavy hair with bangs and looks upward and to our right. Her face and the shell's textured surface are highlighted against a dark background.

No. 4: Freshwater Mermaid

1950, printed probably 1970s

Grete Stern

(German, 1904–1999)

Argentina

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