A History of Women Photographers.pdf

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 22 Cortlandt Street New York, N.Y. 10007 1-800-A (in U.S. only) Available wherever fine books are sold Visit us at www.abbeville.com

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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

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

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Why Women? COLOR PLATES

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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

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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 .

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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“ 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

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