Definitely not a snapshot. On Welty’s Helena Arden

Abstract

This essay considers the photograph Helena Arden as a humoristic exercise that parodies and deconstructs the conventions of the advertising industry in the early 20th century. This self-portrait by Eudora Welty points towards the referential system of consumer society and the role middle-class women play within it. Based on the interaction between image and word and foregrounding the dialogue between sign and beholder, Helena Arden is a political satire of an era, an artistic medium, and of the artist herself.