A History of Women Photographers

PHOTOGRAPHY/WOMEN’S STUDIES
A H I S T O RY
OF WOMEN
PHOTOGRAPHERS
UPDATED AND EXPANDED
BY NAOMI ROSENBLUM
This comprehensive, eye-opening history of women’s
Dr. Naomi Rosenblum, who lives in Long Island
City, New York, has made significant contributions
to the study of photographic history. Her World History
of Photography has become a highly regarded textbook
used in universities throughout North America, and
she has written on Lewis W. Hine, Paul Strand,
modernism, and other aspects of twentieth-century
photography. In the course of her investigation of
women and photography, which has preoccupied her
for nearly two decades, she has presented numerous
lectures and participated in several conferences on
the subject.
Walter Rosenblum
ALSO AVAILABLE FROM ABBEVILLE PRESS
A World History of Photography, third edition
By Naomi Rosenblum
696 pages, 820 illustrations
ISBN 0-7892-0329-4 (paperback)
ISBN 0-7892-0028-7 (cloth)
Women Artists: An Illustrated History, third edition
By Nancy G. Heller
280 pages, 207 illustrations
ISBN 0-7892-0345-6 (paperback)
Abbeville Press
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7
accomplishments in photography ranges around the
world and throughout the entire history of the
medium, from the mid-1800s to the present. Women
have made vital contributions to photography both as
a profession and as an art form from the very beginning. In every aspect of the medium—portraiture,
social and scientific documentation, advertising,
photojournalism, personal expression—women have
been highly active creators. Yet before the first edition
of this ground-breaking book was published, in 1994,
their achievements had long been overlooked.
With A History of Women Photographers,
Dr. Naomi Rosenblum (author of A World History of
Photography, which has become a standard reference)
has helped set the record straight. Works by nearly
260 photographers are reproduced here, from Anna
Atkins, Julia Margaret Cameron, and GenevièveElisabeth Francart Disdéri to Tina Modotti, Lisette
Model, Margaret Bourke-White, Louise Dahl-Wolfe,
Cindy Sherman, and Annette Messager; nearly twenty
are new to this edition. The thoroughly updated text
provides an invitingly readable chronicle both of the
women’s careers and of the often-challenging contexts
within which they worked. Many of these individuals
had not previously received the sustained scholarly
study needed to establish their importance to the field,
and women photographers in general had consistently
been stinted in photographic exhibitions, collections,
and criticism until this invaluable book stimulated
new interest in their work. Concluding the volume are
densely detailed individual biographies and an
extensive annotated bibliography, which have been
updated and expanded for this edition.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
7
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
7
Why Women?
COLOR PLATES
13
CHAPTER 1
39
At the Beginning, 1839–90
CHAPTER 2
55
Not Just for Fun: Women Become Professionals, 1880–1915
CHAPTER 3
73
Portraiture, 1890–1915
CHAPTER 4
93
Art and Recreation: Pleasures of the Amateur, 1890–1920
CHAPTER 5
115
Photography Between the Wars: Europe, 1920 –40
CHAPTER 6
149
Photography Between the Wars: North America, 1920–40
CHAPTER 7
181
Photography as Information, 1940–2000
CHAPTER 8
243
The Feminist Vision, 1970–95
CHAPTER 9
267
Photography as Art, 1940–2000
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
292
NOTES
294
BIOGRAPHIES
305
Jain Kelly
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
360
Peter E. Palmquist
INDEX
388
16
CO LO R PL ATES
OPPOSITE
P L AT E 6 : L O U I S E D A H L - W O L F E
(1895–1989). THE COVERT LOOK,
1 9 4 9 . C O L O R ( C HR O M O G E N I C
D E V E L O P M E N T ) T R A N S P A R E N C Y.
C O U RT E S Y O F T H E M U S E U M A T T H E
FA S H I O N I N S T I T U T E O F
T E C H N O L O G Y, N E W Y O R K .
ABOVE, TOP
P L AT E 7 : J E A N P A G L I U S O ( B O R N
1 9 4 1 ) . U N T I T L E D , 1 9 8 6. 3 5 M M
COLOR SLIDE.
ABOVE, BOTTOM
P L AT E 8 : D E B O R A H T U R B E V I L L E
( B O R N 19 3 7 ) . I TA L I A N VO G U E ,
PA R I S , 1 9 8 1 , 1 9 8 1 . F RE S S O N
P R I N T. C O U R T E S Y O F S T A L E Y- W I S E
G A L L E R Y, N E W Y O R K .
17
P L AT E 1 3 2 : E L L E N A U E R B A C H
(BORN 1906). THREADS, 1930.
G E L A T I N S I LV E R P R I N T. C O U R T E S Y
O F R O B E R T M A N N G A L L E R Y,
NEW YORK.
138
EUROPE, 1920–40
P L AT E 1 3 3 : G R E T E S T E R N
( 1 9 0 4 – 1 9 99 ) . PA P E R I N W AT E R
G L A S S , 1 9 3 1 . G E L AT I N S I LV E R
P R I N T. C O U R T E S Y O F G A L E R I E
RUDOLF KICKEN, COLOGNE,
G E R M A N Y.
evoke deep-seated longings for personalities and products. Photomontage played an especially
important role in advertising—one that remains viable to this day.
The preference for photographic rather than graphic images evinced by advertising agencies in the late 1920s and early 1930s was based on their “element of surprise and
the power to carry conviction.”32 Advertising photography was promoted in Germany by the
publishing empire known as the House of Ullstein, which needed good photographs to illustrate the ads in its numerous magazines and advertising brochures. For women, advertising
was one of the most difficult branches of the medium in which to succeed because, as the
photographer Germaine Krull noted, agencies for selling photographs “seem to have been
reserved for men.”33 Nonetheless, a pioneer of the new commercial photography was Elsbeth
Heddenhausen, director of the photographic studio for the Ullstein publishing enterprise.34
The increase in advertising in Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s made it possible
for a number of women to achieve renown in the field. Among them were the former
Bauhaus students Ellen Auerbach (plate 132)
and Grete Stern (plate 133), who formed a
Berlin studio known as “foto ringl + pit” in
1930 and later became partners in a studio in
London. The two were acclaimed by one critic
for their “inborn womanly instinct for the delicate nuances of textiles”; a contrasting view held
that their images provided a “characteristic”
rather than a “flattering” (that is, feminine)
look at such stuffs.35
Although not associated with the
Bauhaus, Aenne Biermann, working in Gera,
Germany, was perhaps the most resolute in her
devotion to the appearance of the object.36 Her
advertising images, whether of organic or manufactured objects, transformed those substances
into seductive enticements. Florence Henri,
working in Paris, adapted her configurations of
spheres and mirrors into arresting designs using
Lanvin perfume bottles and other products,
although it is not clear whether these images
were actually used as ads.37 Nora Dumas joined
her husband in the Parisian studio DumasSatigny to supply a range of advertising images;
Laure Albin-Guillot, considered the doyenne of
French women professionals by the 1930s, also
supplied such images to agencies and periodicals.
139
P L AT E 2 1 9 : C R I S T I N A G A R C Í A
R OD E R O ( B O RN 1 9 4 9 ) . P I L G R I M A G E
F R O M L U M B I E R , S PA I N , 1 9 8 0 .
G E L AT I N S I LV E R P R I N T . C O U R T E S Y
O F G A L L E R Y O F C O N T E M P O R AR Y
P H O T O G R A P H Y, S A N T A M O N I C A ,
CALIFORNIA.
226
PHOTOGRAPHY
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“
osenblum’s book is a necessary companion to any available survey of photography’s history. . . . Weaving together
biographical fact, social history, and critical observation, Rosenblum develops a dynamic view of women’s engagement with
camera work.” — K E N N E T H B A K E R , S A N F R A N C I S C O S U N D A Y E X A M I N E R A N D C H R O N I C L E
T
“ here are surprises in every chapter of this well-written history, and the supporting material, which includes bibliographies
and brief biographies of almost 250 photographers, is equally valuable.” — D O U G L A S B A L Z , C H I C A G O T R I B U N E
“
Naomi Rosenblum’s well-illustrated A History of Women Photographers is certain to be the definitive study for many
years to come.” — A L A N
AN D RES , ART N EW ENG LA ND
IS BN 0-7892 -065 8-7
U.S. $65.00
5 65 0 0
9 780 789 2 0658 9