With today being International Women's Day, it's a great opportunity to take a look at some of the most important, influential, and contemporary women who shaped and are continuing to shape the world of photography.
Despite being an industry traditionally skewed towards men – with names like Ansel Adams immediately springing to mind – some of the world’s most recognized images have been captured by women, working both in the field and operating their own successful photographic studios.
Some of these women are household names in the industry, with the likes of Annie Leibovitz and Dorothea Lange having carved out their place among the best photographers ever. Other names, though, are less known to the masses – but their work and impacts are no less significant.
So let's take a look back at some (but obviously not all) of the most pioneering female photographers and the contributions that they've made to the art of photography, along with some modern names making their marks today…
1. Anna Atkins
1799-1871
A friend of Henry Fox Talbot, Atkins was an English botanist and photographer. She published Photographs Of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book with photographic illustrations.
Some sources claim that she was the first woman ever to create a photograph – though others suggest that it was Talbot's wife, Constance, who actually holds this distinction.
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2. Julia Margaret Cameron
1815-1879
With a position in Victorian England’s high society, Cameron captured many legendary figures in her short career, which started at the age of 48. She often posed her various sitters as characters from biblical or historical stories, copyrighting all of her photos.
Among her most famous subjects were Charles Darwin, Henry Taylor and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ellen Terry and Alice Liddell.
3. Bertha Beckmann
1815–1901
Beckmann was possibly the first professional female photographer in the world, opening a photographic studio in Leipzig, Germany in 1843 with her husband – a business that she continued to run by herself after his death in 1847.
She moved to the United States in 1949, and would open two studios in New York as well as receive a diploma for special services to portrait photography. An important figure in daguerreotype photography, The Leipzig Museum of City History maintains an exhibit of her work.
4. Mary Carnell
1861-1925
Based in Pennsylvania, USA, American photographer and clubwoman Mary Carnell ran her own photo studio in Philadelphia and in 1909 was the founder and first president of the Women’s Federation of the Photographers’ Association of America.
A trailblazer of women's representation, Carnell also served as president of the Ladies' Auxiliary of the Old Guard State Fencibles, president of the Professional Women's Club and sat on the board of directors of The Plastic Club.
5. Signe Brander
1869-1942
Brander documented the city of Helsinki, Finland and the everyday lives of its inhabitants in the early 20th Century. She created 907 photos of the changing cityscape, often employing a horse-drawn carriage to transport the heavy equipment.
It has been noted that, while women working as photographers was not uncommon in this time period, Brander's position as a city photographer – and her technical acumen for doing so – was indeed rare.
6. Dorothea Lange
1895-1965
Co-founder of Aperture magazine, Lange is responsible for one of the most famous images in photographic history: the iconic ‘Migrant Mother’ shot of Florence Owens Thompson during the Great Depression, which would become the world's most reproduced photograph.
Beyond the sheer visual strength of her photographs, such was the power of her work that it prompted the government to intervene and provide aid to the camp depicted in this series of images.
7. Tina Modotti
1896-1942
Italian photographer Modotti was a revolutionary activist for the Communist Party, as well as a model and actress. Much of her work involved highlighting Mexican culture, which she began shooting in 1922.
In 1923 she would open a portrait studio in Mexico City, together with partner and noted photographer Edward Weston, cultivating a successful business. Among her circle of "avant-gardists" were figures like Frida Kahlo, Lupe Marín, Diego Rivera, and Jean Charlot.
8. Berenice Abbott
1898-1991
Abbott started as a darkroom assistant for Man Ray in Paris, but quickly established herself as a visual artist in her own right. She is best known for portraits of between-the-wars cultural figures, urban design and architectural photographs of 1930s New York, and scientific interpretation shots.
Abbott subscribed to the principles of the 'straight photography movement', which placed great significance on photographs that were not manipulated in either their subject matter or development process.
9. Margaret Bourke-White
1904-1971
Bourke-White is best remembered for her iconic images of World War II and Gandhi at his spinning wheel. In 1941, she became the United States' first female war correspondent.
She holds a number of other distinctions, including being the first foreign photographer allowed to take images of Soviet industry, as well as having her photograph on the cover of Life magazine's first ever issue.
10. Helen Levitt
1913-2009
Levitt was a pioneer in street photography and captured subjects in New York City with her Leica. She has been called “the most celebrated and least-known photographer of her time.”
Such was the significance of her work that she received two grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, and she came to the attention of and worked with both Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans. She would later work in film, getting her first job with surrealist Luis Buñuel.
11. Gerda Taro
1910-1937
Holding the unfortunate distinction of being the first female photojournalist to have died while covering the frontline of conflict, Taro was a German-Jewish war photographer active during the Spanish Civil War.
Taro was the companion and partner of Robert Capa, actually born Endre Friedmann; "Robert Capa" started as a nom de plume for the work produced by both photographers (much of the early work credited to Friedmann / Capa is in fact believed to be Taro's).
12. Dorothy Norman
1905-1997
Norman was a writer, photographer and social activist who depicted the early 20th Century through sensitive portraits. She donated many photos by herself and husband Alfred Stieglitz.
Her activism and photography were motivated by "a desire to advance both art and action", leading her to take portraits of notable figures including Albert Einstein and Jawaharlal Nehru (who would become India's first Prime Minister).
13. Marion Carpenter
1920-2002
Carpenter started working for the Washington Times-Herald at the age of 24. In 1945 she became the first woman member of the White House News Photographers Association, as well as the first female national press photographer to cover Washington, DC and the White House.
Even more notably, she was the first woman press photographer permitted to travel with a US President on a daily basis. She developed a warm professional and personal relationship with Harry S Truman.
14. Diane Arbus
1923-1971
New York-based Arbus documented minority groups who were subject to social prejudice. Her black-and-white portraits famously worked to normalize marginalized subjects including strippers, cross-dressers, carnival performers, tattooed men, nudists and dwarves.
She was awarded a Fellowship by the Guggenheim Foundation in 1963, and in 1972 (a year after she committed suicide) she became the first photographer to be included in the Venice Biennale.
15. Vivian Maier
1926-2009
Maier generated an astounding body of work, consisting of over 150,000 images, but remained in obscurity until her images were distributed online after her death. Her photography encapsulated life in American cities, with a focus on the less fortunate members of society.
Her photographs languished in obscurity until they were purchased in a sale after she failed to make payments on her Chicago storage space. After being shared on Flickr in 2009, the photographs went viral. The story of Maier's work and its discovery was the subject of Oscar-nominate documentary, Finding Vivian Maier.
16. Sara Facio
1932-present
Facio co-founded La Azotea, the first publishing house in Latin America dedicated to photography. She also established the Fotogalería of the Teatro Municipal General San Martín, one of the most prominent exhibition spaces in Argentina.
Her subjects included prominent Argentinian cultural figures, writers and poets such as Julio Cortázar, María Elena Walsh and Alejandra Pizarnik, and her work sits in the collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
17. Annie Leibovitz
1949-present
Arguably one of the most famous female photographers alive, Leibovitz is best known for her engaging and intimate portraits – particularly of celebrities. In 1991 she became the first woman to hold an exhibition at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery.
A photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, her cover shot of John Lennon and Yoko Ono – taken just hours before Lennon's assassination – has achieved iconic status. The Library of Congress declared her a Living Legend, a distinction she shares with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Walter Cronkite and Steven Spielberg.
18. Nan Goldin
1953-present
Goldin’s work features and explores LGBT bodies, moments of intimacy, the HIV crisis, and the opioid epidemic. A recovering opioid addict, her intimate images often document her own life and those who are close to her.
Like Diane Arbus, her work focuses on celebrating marginalized lifestyles and groups, with her first solo show in 1973 dedicated to her time spent with the gay and transgender communities.
19. Cindy Sherman
1954-present
Sherman’s one of the most influential people in contemporary art. She has worked as her own model for more than 30 years, capturing herself in a range of personas and assuming multiple roles: photographer, model, makeup artist, hairdresser and stylist.
An inspiration to photographers such as Flora Borsi, Sherman was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 1995 and received an honorary doctorate from London's Royal College of Art in 2013.
20. Shirin Neshat
1957-present
Iranian-born Neshat has a collection of images with a strong commentary on cultural and gender inequality in her native country. The challenges of being a Muslim woman is a great motivation behind her images.
Her work has been honored at the highest level, including winning the International Award at the Venice Biennale and the Silver Lion for best director at the Venice Film Festival. In 2020 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Photographic Society.
21. Francesca Woodman
1958-1981
Best known for her creative mono self-portraits, Francesca Woodman also shot women who were blurred (due to movement and long exposures), merged with their surroundings. At just 22, she committed suicide, leaving behind evocative images that influenced a generation of artists.
Most of her photographs were shot on 6x6 medium format cameras. She also worked in video, with her pieces being shown at the Helsinki City Art Museum in Finland, Miami's Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, the Tate Modern in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim in New York.
22. Petra Collins
1992-present
Collins is an artist, model, photographer and one of the leading voices of the New-Wave Feminism movement. She has landed major campaigns at Adidas, Gucci and Nordstrom, and retains complete creative control over them.
In addition to her photographic output, she has also emerged as a director and filmmaker, with her work spanning documentaries to music videos for artists like Carly Rae Jepsen, Selena Gomez, and Cardi B.
23. Deana Lawson
1979-present
As an American artist, educator and photographer born and based in New York, Lawson’s work primarily focuses on issues of intimacy, family, spirituality, sexuality, and black aesthetics.
She was awarded the Hugo Boss Prize 'for significant achievement in contemporary art' and her work has featured in museums and galleries such as New York's International Center for Photography, Museum of Modern Art and Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
24. Julia Fullerton-Batten
1972 - present
German-born, London-based fine art and commercial photographer Julia Fullerton Batten is known for her distinctly creative style, often in unusual locations using cinematic lighting. Since she started her full-time freelance photography in 2001, Batten has produced 17 major projects exploring everything from the relationship between mother and daughter to documenting feral children and her 2021 series examined the art of contortionism. Her work is instantly recognizable and deeply rooted in theatrics, her use of color is captivating and her images have a deeply mysterious quality to them. She's got a permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery, the Musee de l'Elysee and Lausanne.
25. Carolyn Mendelsohn
Best known for her award-winning series, Being Inbetween which examines the complex transition between girlhood and womanhood, Carolyn's striking portraits have been exhibited all over the UK including the Norther Eye Fringe, Impressions Gallery and it has been featured online on Buzzfeed and The Guardian. Although her career started in the world of film as a director and filmmaker, her passion for photography developed when she became a Mum and had to look after three small children. She is an ambassador for both Nikon and the Royal Photographic Society and in 2020 she has crowned the winner a portrait series in the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards.
26. Anna Neubauer
Austrian born photographer and visual artist Anna Neubauer is best known for her ongoing work centered around people with visibile differences. Through thought-provoking images that tell a story, Nebauer hopes to address the importance of diversity in inclusion while bringing the surreal world of her imagination to life. In the Portrait of Britain Vol5. two of her photos were selected as winning images and she has previously won the Female in Focis award, also by the British Journal of Photography, she came 3rd placd in the Portrait category at the Sony World Photo Award in 2022 and was crowned the Adobe Rising Star of Photography 2021.
27. Lucia Griggi
Cornwall, England-based commercial and editorial photographer Lucia Griggi made a name for herself in a predominantly man's world. As one of very few female surf photographers, Lucia's love of water (despite her fear of the ocean) pushed her to take shots that no one else was taking. Throughout her varied career, Lucia has shot everything from penguins to people, sporting events to stunning landscapes using photography as a means to travel the world. Check out our interview with Lucia conducted to celebrate International Women's Day.
