Romanticizing Rural Life

When photographing people outside her studio, Ulmann was interested in capturing them as they were. She often had to convince rural folk to stay in the clothes they wore, she is quoted as saying "It's not an easy task to induce a farmer's wife to have her picture taken in her kitchen gown peeling potatoes" She had a way of capturing people in an elegant real manner that would make the pictures of her mountaineers so compelling.

There seems to be something more than just a fascination with wrinkled and weather faces. In all of her photos of rural folk, there is this love for their way of life. Whether its the boy sitting on the fence smiling, craft people focused on their work or musicians holding their instruments, there is something romantic about these pictures.