Discipline: Visual Art

Martha Tabor

Discipline: Visual Art
Region: Washington, D.C.
MacDowell Fellowships: 1996
Martha W. Tabor (1939–2004) was an educator, laborer, union organizer, photographer, and notable artist in the Washington, D.C. area. Tabor transitioned from a career as a laborer to one of an artist in the late 1970s. Her primary artistic mediums were photography, screenprinting, and sculpture. She received a number of grants for her artwork and held artist's residencies at MacDowell, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Studios Midwest, and the Blue Mountain Center. While a laborer in Washington, Tabor began taking photographs of her fellow workers. She founded her freelance photography business, Working Images, in 1979. Many of her photographs focus on documenting blue and white collar workers, women workers, midwives, and Washington, D.C. municipal employees. A collection of her labor-related photographs is held as part of the George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archive in Special Collections at the University of Maryland Libraries.

Studios

Eastman

Martha Tabor worked in the Eastman studio.

Thanks to the generous support of MacDowell Fellow and board member Louise Eastman, this century-old farm building was reinvented as a modern, energy efficient live and workspace for visual artists. Originally built in 1915 to house a forge and provide storage when the residency program was expanding, this small barn was simply converted for…

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