File:Michna-Bales TDTL DecisiontoLeave.jpg

Photograph by Jeanine Michna-Bales, Decision to Leave, Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River, Louisiana, (from Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad, Chromogenic print, 2013). The image illustrates a key earlier photographic essay series in artist Jeanine Michna-Bales's career from the earlier 2010s, when she produced the project and book, Through Darkness to Light: Seeking Freedom on the Underground Railroad (2002–16), a reconstructed of a 1,400-mile passage north from Louisiana to Ontario told through nocturnal landscapes shot from a first-person perspective. The image is the opening one of the series, depicting a ramshackle plantation cabin representing the journey's starting point. The series then progresses through gradually brightening forests, swamps and safe houses to ultimate deliverance. This body of work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications and acquired by major museums.

Artist Jeanine Michna-Bales. Copyright held by the artist.

Jeanine Michna-Bales

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key, earlier photographic essay series in artist Jeanine Michna-Bales's career from the earlier 2010s: her project and book, Through Darkness to Light: Seeking Freedom on the Underground Railroad (2002–16), which photographically reconstructed a single, possible 1,400-mile Underground Railroad passage north from Louisiana to Ontario. The photographs, primarily nocturnal landscapes devoid of people, were shot from a first-person point of view at night when runaways would have been traveling. They form a narrative that sought to evoke a sense of the adventure and peril of this journey. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this early and widely recognized body of work, which brought Michna-Bales widespread recognition through exhibitions, coverage by major critics and publications and museum acquisitions. Michna-Bales's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Jeanine Michna-Bales, and the work no longer is viewable, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.