A camera creates history from the photographer’s point of view – that’s why it’s important to have a variety in front of the lens and behind it. I was diving deep into the archives of women’s history when I realized that many of the images that gave me pause were not just women in front of the lens but women making the image.
As a photographer, I believe that understanding what’s in front of my lens is important to creating the best photos. Recognizing women through photography is not just a representation of an art form; it’s empowering women to shape the way women’s history is told.
These ten photographs mark an important moment in women’s history, but they were also created by female artists themselves.
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Christina Boom: Suffrage Movement, 1909
Known as the first female journalist in the UK, Christina Boom photographed the suffragette movement, as well as life during World War II, and the royal family. In this photo, Buka photographed a suffragette at a Women’s Exhibition march in London.
Jessie Tarbox Beals: The Suffrage Night Event, 1913-1917
Low light photography is difficult even with modern cameras, but Jessie Tarbox Beals took this night photo in the early 1910s. Beals is considered one of the first published female photojournalists and the first female night photographer. He captured this image of a suffrage parade in a park in the early 1910s.
Olive Edis: Women at Work During the First World War, 1916
Considered one of Britain’s first female artists, Olive Edis was commissioned by the Women’s committee of the Imperial War Museum to document women working in the First World War. This photo shows the interior of the British Red Cross Society and OSJJ Recreation hut.
Dorthea Lange: Immigrant Mother, 1936
Dorthea Lange’s photograph Migrant Mother is now a vivid depiction of the Great Depression, but it depicts the struggles of families living in the Dust Bowl by portraying a mother and her children.
Lange used a 4×5 Graflex camera and took six photos of the family.
Doreen Spooner: Unwed Mothers, 1963
Considered the first female photographer in a British national newspaper, Doreen Spooner’s photography career would eventually make her something of a feminist icon. Her career has had many historical events, as her work helped to rethink how women in fashion were photographed. This photo shows a mother feeding her baby in a section of a hostel reserved for single mothers.
Bev Grant: Protesting the Miss America Pageant, 1968
Bev Grant was already an activist and singer, but she began her career as a photographer while photographing women’s and political rallies. The No More Miss America protest in 1968 was one of her first protests.
Francoise De Mulder: Burning Beirut, 1976
Francoise De Mulder was the first woman to win the World Press Photo with this image, called Burning Beirut, in 1979. The image shows a Palestinian woman asking Christian militia for help during the Lebanese civil war.
Barbara Alper: Women Against Sexism, 1979
Barbara Alper is a New York-based photojournalist whose work ranges from Rockaway Beach photos to her Sex Games series documenting the underground world of adult entertainment. This photo shows protesters at the Women Against Pornography March in 1979, where 5,000 people marched, arguing that pornography degrades women.
Carol Guzy: Maternal, 2008
Carol Guzy is a Pulitzer-winning photojournalist – in fact, she was the first photojournalist to receive four Pulitzers. In this photo, a midwife tends to a woman who later dies of pre-eclampsia in Sierra Leone, which has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world.
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