In observation of International Women's Week on dA, we are celebrating women as they attempt to realize their potentials in their respective fields of expertise and art. I will not attempt to talk about female photographers, for I do not differentiate between the great photography of men and women. Instead, I would like to celebrate and honor the careers of women who who rose to the top of their game, sometimes against the considerable odds of the times. You can easily locate a source online to read summaries of these women's careers, so rather than giving an account of their careers here, I am going to share a few details (that I found interesting) about the lives of these extraordinary women.

I'm also including a patchwork of thumbs from some of the women of dA who carry cameras with them regularly. Hope you enjoy!


Julia Margaret Cameron
1815–1879
British
Julia Margaret Cameron began her brief but superlative career as a photographer at the age of 48, when her daughter gave her a camera! Her favorite model was her niece Julia Jackson, who happens to have been the mother of author Virginia Woolf. She had a book published by Hogarth Press (founded by Leonard and Virginia Woolf), and Virginia Woolf wrote the forward to Cameron's book of photographs. She was as shrewd a businesswoman as she was a talented photographer, copyrighting all her works and thereby ensuring the survival of her photographs. Unfortunately, when she moved back to Sri Lanka, she could no longer get adequate supplies to do her work, and almost none of her work from that time period survives.


Prayer and Praise
British, Freshwater, Isle of Wight, 1865
Albumen print
11 1/16 x 8 15/16 in.
84.XZ.186.91


Imogen Cunningham
1883-1976
American
Unlike Cameron, Imogen Cunningham had to help fund her education. She did this, as is evident in her works, by photographing plants for the botany department where she attended school. Cunningham started photography once but then put it down. We have the works of Gertrude Kasebie to thank for inspiring her to recommence with her career as a photographer. A science professor encouraged and helped her with her interest in the chemistry of photography. She was quite a scholar, who wrote often on the processes of her times. Eventually she worked at Vanity Fair until it quit publishing in 1936! She was one of the co-founders of the Group f/64, which focused on "direct presentation through photographic methods". When her husband asked that she wait for him before going to work in New York, she went on her own and later divorced.


Magnolia Bud, by Imogen Cunningham, 1925


Diane Arbus
1923–1971
American
Diane Arbus was lucky to study privately early on with Lisette Model! It must have been rare during those times to find female mentors. She married young and worked alongside her husband, from whom she would later separate. She studied with Alexey Brodovitch and Richard Avedon, too. Her works appeared in recognizable titles such as Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and Sunday Times magazines. She was without doubt one of the champions of the square aspect ratio! Who doesn't love squares? Sadly, Diane Arbus ended her life in 1971.


Child with a Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park
NYC 1962


Sally Mann
born 1951
American

It would be impossible for me to write an article about women who photograph without including my favorite photographer, Sally Mann. Like many photographers, she began because someone in her life put a camera in her hand, and in her case it was her father. You might not know, though, that she started out as a writer and holds a Master's Degree in Writing from Hollins College. Once you know that, however, it is not surprising that Mann has eloquently spoken about her life and creative process... "I struggle with enormous discrepancies: between the reality of motherhood and the image of it, between my love for my home and the need to travel, between the varied and seductive paths of the heart. The lessons of impermanence, the occasional despair and the muse, so tenuously moored, all visit their needs upon me and I dig deeply for the spiritual utilities that restore me: my love for the place, for the one man left, for my children and friends and the great green pulse of spring." When her children were young, they were frequently at center of her photography.


Blowing Bubbles, 1987


Women Who Take Photos on dA