Anne Noggle: Self Portraits

The selection of self-portraits on display in the E. Craig Wall Jr. Academic Center are by American artist Anne Noggle. Born in 1922 in Evanston, IL, Noggle served as an Airforce Service Pilot (1943-44) before becoming a crop-duster and stunt pilot in an aerial circus in the Southwest. She also served as a captain in the United States Airforce during the Korean War before retiring in 1959. Shortly after, at the age of 38, she enrolled at the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque where she began her second career as an artist, earning a BA in art and art history (1966) and an MA in photography (1969).

Much like her career in the Airforce, Noggle’s artwork consistently challenged stereotypes and the roles typically afforded to women. In 1970, she began photographing her aging mother, Agnes, and found decades of material, eventually turning the camera on other women and later on herself to capture images of aging female bodies. She approached the topic with honesty and humor, the latter evident in her referral to the photographic series as the “saga of fallen flesh.” She was particularly interested in speaking to the diminished power women often experience as they age.

After receiving a John Simon Guggenhein Foundation Fellowship for her accomplishments as a photographer, Noggle underwent cosmetic surgery. The immediate aftermath is depicted in one of the photographs on view. Her decision to get a facelift was critiqued by some as a contradiction of her celebration of the aging process. She responded, “I just looked at those baggy eyes one morning and I just felt I didn’t want to look as old as I look. I feel so young.”[1] Perhaps her exploration and understanding of the indignities of aging made her less willing to endure them herself.

[1] Woo, Elaine. Anne Noggle, 83; Photographed Older Women. Los Angles Times, 04 September 2005, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-sep-04-me-noggle4-story.html/. Accessed 23 July 2021