Photography - A Feminist History How Women Shaped the Art

by Lewis, Emma

• ISBN13: 9781781578049
• ISBN10: 1781578044
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2022-10-04
• Publisher: Ilex Press

Summary

Groundbreaking work telling the story of women and non-binary photographers from the 1800s to the present day

From the fashion studio to the front line, social justice movements to selfies, women have transformed photography at every stage in its short history. For some, gender is front and center of their work, for others it's beside the point. All are affected by the power structures beyond their lenses. Far too many are overlooked.

Photography - A Feminist History explores how women's rights and societal attitudes to gender across the world have shaped those who have become photographers, the kinds of work they have made, and how their stories have been written - and rewritten - over time. Mapping photography's history against gender-based rights, social justice movements, and shifting cultural norms, it shines a light on the factors that have motivated, supported and inhibited women and non-binary photographers from the 1800s to the present day.

How did the abolitionist movement impact women's entry into the field? What does photography have to do with laws around menstrual rights? Is there even such a thing as a "feminist image"?

International in scope, Photography - A Feminist History includes the work of over 200 photographers, both established and lesser known, with thematic essays and extended texts on 75 practitioners, many compiled from interviews with the author.

Includes work by Dora Maar, Homai Vyarawalla, Lee Miller, Zofia Rydet, Poulomi Basu, Laia Abril, Lebohang Kganye and Mari Katayama, plus many more.

Author Biography

Emma Lewis is Assistant Curator, International Art Tate Modern. Since joining the museum in 2013 she has organised or co-organised numerous collection exhibitions and permanent collection displays, most recently Dora Maar (2019), Portraits and Community (2019) and Wolfgang Tillmans (2017) and is responsible for researching photography acquisitions for the permanent collection, with a specialist focus on women's histories and feminist practices. Emma regularly contributes to exhibition catalogues and artist monographs, sits on panels for organizations including Sony, Magnum Photos and British Journal of Photography, and has appeared on BBC's Start the Week and The Listening Service. Her first book Isms: Understanding Photography was published in 2017.