{"id":39354,"date":"2019-11-04T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/11\/04\/the-female-gaze-powers-the-photography-project-we-are-mary-jane\/"},"modified":"2019-11-05T12:50:49","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T20:50:49","slug":"the-female-gaze-powers-the-photography-project-we-are-mary-jane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/11\/04\/the-female-gaze-powers-the-photography-project-we-are-mary-jane\/","title":{"rendered":"The Female Gaze Powers the Photography Project \u2018We Are Mary Jane\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Some of the women in the photographs that comprise Maria Cavali\u2019s \u201cWe Are Mary Jane \u2013 Women in Cannabis\u201d stare directly into the camera lens. Others flick their eyes downward to focus on an inhalation or to watch smoke leak from their open mouths, while a few are caught laughing in response to something outside of the frame.<\/p>\n

The images themselves are far from uniform, and purposefully so: Cavali photographs different women in different locations, with various degrees of planning and preparation beforehand.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>Sometimes I have an appointment with one person and that person is very late, and then while waiting I meet another person,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of an adventure to me, to get these photos.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cI think people need to be educated on the
\nfact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana
\nis a herb and a flower\u2026 and a true friend to
\nme. Thank you Mary Jane!\u201d
\n-Veronica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The women in Cavali\u2019s pictures do have a handful of things in common, however. They\u2019re all part of the cannabis business, for one, involved in the industry touted as empowering for and inclusive of its female-identifying members. Maybe more importantly, the women captured in the series all exude a breezy confidence as they clutch their joints and pose for Cavali\u2019s camera.<\/p>\n

But the most vital, magnetic thing about the women who Cavali photographs, and the way Cavali photographs them, is how comfortable they seem to be with taking up space. They don\u2019t perch \u2014 they occupy. They sit, legs akimbo, shoulders relaxed, seemingly guided by an assurance that they are enough \u2014 more than enough, even \u2014 to fill the room of one of Amsterdam\u2019s\u00a0famed coffeeshops<\/a>\u00a0all by themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [the women in the photos] can be even quite provocative, because they\u2019re so strong,\u201d says\u00a0Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum<\/a>\u00a0curator Simone Badoux. \u201cThese women look you straight in the eyes and say, \u2018Yes, I\u2019m smoking a joint, so what?\u2019 They kick *ss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
\u201cCannabis guides me on my spiritual journey.\u201c -Jevoita<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Badoux collaborated with Cavali, displaying the photographer\u2019s work as a part of an exhibition at the Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum titled \u201cWe Are Mary Jane<\/a>,\u201d which first opened in Amsterdam last year and centered around women in the cannabis industry.<\/p>\n

Cavali dreamed of a career in photography as a teenager, but didn\u2019t quite know how to pursue what she wanted. Born and raised in Lithuania, Cavali says her parents encouraged her to study something practical and career-oriented, so when it came time to pursue higher education, she wound up in school for a political science degree. However, she says she never stopped taking pictures, shooting her friends for free and dabbling in fashion photography.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But while on an internship related to her less-than-ideal area of study, Cavali found herself connecting with members of the freelance photography community in Amsterdam. This reignited her passion and opened her mind to the possibilities that Amsterdam and the world of photography had to offer. Cavali has lived and worked in Amsterdam for the past eight years. In the process, she\u2019s made a space for herself and the life she wants in the city she loves \u2014 and in the cannabis community.<\/p>\n

\"\"
-Rosa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Actors In Their Own Right<\/h4>\n

\u201cWe Are Mary Jane\u201d was born in a similar, meandering fashion to Cavali\u2019s career. She simply feels inspired by the atmosphere that coffeeshops cultivate. \u201cLife stops there,\u201d she says. \u201cYou enter and then time stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

This admiration tipped into urgency on a day she was showing her older brother around her new city. She tried to take him to one of her favorite coffeeshops, a \u201csophisticated\u201d spot decorated with \u201cbig bookshelves,\u201d but found it was closed. She tried another of her favorites, only to find that it was closed as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI researched, and actually [officials] closed over 30 coffeeshops [at the time],\u201d Cavali said. \u201cAnd I thought, oh, I want to capture this all before it fades away. And that\u2019s how the project started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cSmoking a joint to me is like pressing play on a CD player. You can skip any part of your life and jump to that happy phase.\u201d \u2013 Natalia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When she first embarked on the project in 2014, Cavali says the industry prominence of her subjects, not gender, was the priority. That changed when she was approached by Badoux, who asked her a paradigm-shifting question: Did she have more photos of women?<\/p>\n

Badoux says she was alerted to Cavali\u2019s work by a colleague and found herself drawn to the photo series because of the powerful energy exuded by its female subjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaria\u2019s photos are very fresh and colorful, and she does an amazing job representing the actual character of her subjects \u2013 I find the photos all very empowering,\u201d Badoux says. \u201cThe women photographed are not merely models; they are actors in their own right, with a story to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cI smoke cannabis to connect even more with Shiva, so I feel in peace while enjoying the Divine taste. Boom Shankar Bolenath.\u201d -Tonia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This attitude meshed well with Badoux\u2019s goals for the exhibition as a whole: to galvanize and celebrate women who work with and use cannabis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe women play a pivotal role in the normalization of cannabis consumption,\u201d Badoux says. \u201cI hope people will feel inspired as well as amazed by the many stories about strong personalities of the women in the cannabis industry, from the past and present.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u201cIt\u2019s in our genes!\u201d -Shiva and Shanti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Space to Grow<\/h4>\n

When working on her submission to the \u201cWe Are Mary Jane\u201d exhibition, Cavali began seeking out women to photograph. She says the more she was able to connect with them, the more her appreciation for their niche in the cannabis community, and of cannabis itself, deepened.<\/p>\n

In the future, she wants to find more ways to connect her work with the cannabis community, especially as it relates to sustainability. And she says she\u2019s eager to donate her photography skills and her time to the right cause \u2014 as soon as she finds the right fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to be involved in creating some better world using cannabis,\u201d Cavali says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m sure that because I\u2019m meeting so many women in cannabis that something will come up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
-Gloria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And in the meantime, she says that just because her work has already been displayed in museums internationally, at both the Amsterdam and Barcelona locations of the Hash Marihuana & Hemp Museum, doesn\u2019t mean that it is finished.<\/p>\n

Cavali continues to cast her net wide for more subjects for \u201cWe Are Mary Jane\u201d and has tentative plans for where she thinks she\u2019d like it to go next: as a series of postcards sold in coffeeshops, or maybe even a book printed on hemp paper with joint-rolling instructions included. But the important thing remains that the project continues to evolve and grow.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I have some publicity, I have more women in cannabis approaching me,\u201d Cavali says. \u201cAnd maybe they\u2019re traveling to Amsterdam and then I get to photograph them! I think it\u2019s a great way to spread the word and continue the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

TELL US<\/strong>, have you ever been photographed enjoying cannabis?<\/p>\n

Originally published in Issue 38 of Cannabis Now.\u00a0LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The post The Female Gaze Powers the Photography Project \u2018We Are Mary Jane\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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Some of the women in the photographs that comprise Maria Cavali\u2019s \u201cWe Are Mary Jane \u2013 Women in Cannabis\u201d stare directly into the camera lens. Others flick their eyes downward to focus on an inhalation or to watch smoke leak from their open mouths, while a few are caught laughingContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":39355,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59,50,9774,99,85,12526,12802,1156,12803,4229,6538],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39356,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39354\/revisions\/39356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}