Body & Soul: Ten American Women by Carolyn Coman and photographs by Judy Dater (1988) is a nonfiction photographic book that combines compelling portraiture with the life stories of ten distinctive American women.
📘 Summary
-
Portrait-Driven Narrative: The book profiles ten American women from diverse backgrounds — including a dog-sled racer, a solitary nun, a famous actress, a director, a Mormon mother who chose alternative schooling for her children, and others — capturing both their outward lives and inner experiences.
-
First-Person Stories: Writer Carolyn Coman constructed the narratives from extensive interviews, shaping each woman’s story in her own voice to “make an unbelievable-sounding life understandable” and reveal adventure, struggle, and individuality within everyday existence.
-
Photographic Exploration: Judy Dater’s black-and-white photographs accompany the texts, offering a visual expression of personality, emotion, and character. The images deepen the reader’s connection to each woman, emphasizing presence and dignity while extending beyond simple depiction to suggest inner life and soul.
-
Diversity of Experience: Body & Soul highlights an eclectic group whose lives span a wide range of ages, experiences, and cultural contexts. Rather than adhering to a single unifying theme, the collection’s power lies in its celebration of individuality and the varied ways women navigate personal and social worlds.
Overall, Body & Soul weaves intimate first-person narratives with expressive portraiture to create a multifaceted homage to American women’s lives, moods, and identities, illustrated through Dater’s empathetic and skillful photographic gaze.
