15 Famous Female Photographers and Their Photos • PhotoTraces

In a world the place males dominate artwork and images, it’s refreshing to see the work of those proficient, well-known feminine photographers. Each one has her distinctive model that’s positive to encourage different ladies.

For me the topic of an image is all the time extra vital than the image. And extra difficult.

Diane Arbus

Photography wouldn’t be what it’s at present if it weren’t for the braveness and fervour of those 15 astounding photographers who share one superb factor—their style. Like so many different issues in historical past, images is commonly seen as a crowded place for males, however because of the conviction and fervour of many nice ladies, images has achieved a elegant state of each artwork and self-discipline.

Famous Female Photographers

Thanks to our checklist of “Famous Female Photographers,” we recall the nice works of the proximate previous on this frantic world of immediacy and viral content material. We’re excited to carry you 15 well-known feminine photographers of the Twentieth century within the spirit of lists and our love of images.

Related: 12 Creative Photography Ideas

From advanced artists like Francesca Woodman to the unbelievably fierce just like the younger Gerda Taro, ladies have enormously contributed to images as we all know it at present. In truth, it wouldn’t be the identical with out every of those 15 superb ladies. And whereas narrowing the checklist has been tough and bittersweet, we’re thrilled to share our high 15 picks for well-known feminine photographers.

1. Annie Leibovitz (1949 – )

Spending her childhood and adolescence in numerous cities across the United States, Annie Leibovitz’s first contact with images was home and enormously impacted her model. She began her educational research in images in 1970 on the San Francisco Institute of Art.

Months later, she achieved her first of many milestones when one in all her photographs graced the duvet of Rolling Stone journal in 1971.

Two years later, writer Jann Wenner named Leibovitz the Chief Photographer of RollingStone, which she held for 10 years earlier than leaving in 1983 for a place with Vanity Fair.

She was impressed and influenced by many different photographers like Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson—who’re surprisingly well-known for his or her documentary and road work—throughout her time on the San Francisco Art Institute.

Also impressed by Richard Avedon, Leibovitz had an attractive relationship with author and essayist Susan Sontag, who enormously contributed to Leibovitz’s inspiration and work.

Today, Leibovitz is taken into account to be the photographer of the well-known. Her productions are very properly thought out and provide excessive conceptualization. She can also be recognized for taking the final picture of John Lennon earlier than his dying.

You can see a few of her work right here, however should you get the possibility to buy this guide, please do. You received’t remorse it.

Books by Annie Leibovitz:

2. Berenice Abbott (1898 – 1991)

An American photographer largely recognized for her portraits, Berenice Abbott’s love of images began in 1920 when she labored as a darkroom assistant for the peculiar photographer and vastly recognized surrealist Man Ray.

Developing her personal expertise and aesthetic after assembly individuals like Max Ernst, James Joyce, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, she was additionally impressed by the nice photographs of Eugène Atget.

In an inventive sense, Abbott pursued goal photographs that stood on their very own benefit, slightly than simply referencing different classical artwork kinds with black and white as her chosen medium. Her portraits are traditionally centered around the globe wars and cultural figures, together with her architectural and concrete images, like these seen in her New York City items providing a placing aesthetic.

Books by Berenice Abbott:

3. Cindy Sherman (1954 – )

Cynthia Morris Sherman is a peculiar artist and feminine photographer who can also be one of the vital vital figures of the post-war period, together with her work exhibited on the Museum of Modern Art for over three many years. She is greatest recognized for personifying the classical stereotypes of movie noir and European cinema in what is named the “author films” of the Nineteen Fifties and the Sixties.

Her most well-known work is Untitled Film Stills, which was produced from 1977 to 1980 and features a collection of 69 footage the place she enacts feminine clichés of Twentieth-century popular culture. Her constant double position as a topic and viewer is placing proof of her inventive assertion and conscience.

Books by Cindy Sherman:

4. Diane Arbus (1923 – 1971)

Diane Arbus was an American photographer who targeted on an exceptionally singular demographic—the marginalized. This social pocket was populated by dwarfs, giants, transgenders, nudists, circus performers, and plenty of different surreal personas that captured her consideration throughout her time. She is commonly thought-about the Sylvia Plath of images due to her work in addition to her early suicide.

What we all know at present about Arbus is because of the courageous and passionate conviction of John Szarkowski, the well-known and historic curator of the Museum of Modern Art. He offered her work alongside Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander beneath the idea titled “A New Generation of Documentary Photographers.”

Embodying the significance of getting near individuals on the subject of environmental and on a regular basis portraits, Arbus is actually an inspiration. She has been credited for her uncanny and superb potential to separate her topics from their context or their society.

Books by Diane Arbus:

5. Dorothea Lange (1895 – 1965)

Dorothea Lange was an important American documentary photographer and photojournalist who is thought for her work through the Great Depression of the Twentieth century for the Farm Security Administration (FSA).

Migrant Mother is probably her most iconic work and can also be probably the most well-known picture she produced throughout her tenure with the FSA. The picture embodies the advanced struggles of the American working class of the time.

Books by Dorothea Lange:

6. Francesca Woodman (1958 – 1981)

Born on the middle of a household of artists, Francesca Woodman was no stranger to American images and its influencers, because of her dad and mom, George and Betty Woodman. Today, the Woodmans handle their daughter’s archives, together with roughly 800 photographs, of which solely 120 have been publicized via exhibitions or books.

Perhaps not probably the most well-known feminine photographer, Woodman’s expertise is plain. She is thought primarily for her self-portraits and has been outlined for her unveiling perspective towards the digital camera. Although she tragically dedicated suicide on the age of twenty-two in 1981, her work continues to be the topic of widespread important acclaim and a focus.

Books by Francesca Woodman:

7. Gerda Taro (1910 – 1937)

Gerda Taro is one feminine photographer that historical past ought to always remember. Born as Gerta Pohorylle however taking over an alias as a younger and proficient photojournalist, Taro was a pioneer in photojournalism, particularly when it got here to the self-discipline of conflict. Today, she is acknowledged as the primary photojournalist to cowl a Belic battle and, sadly, is often known as the primary girl who died doing this courageous job.

Romantically concerned with Endre Ernö Friedmann, Taro and Friedmann each shot beneath one signature – Robert Capa. Because of this and the issue in figuring out the authority of some photographs, Taro’s work is commonly advanced and tough to look at.

One mechanism that has been dependable in crediting sure photographs to Taro and others to Friedmann is the format of the photographs. Taro labored with a 6×6 medium format digital camera whereas Friedmann labored with a 35mm format digital camera; nonetheless, digital camera sharing might have simply taken place even then.

Friedmann’s brother, Cornell Capa, is the person behind the International Center of Photography and has taken on the duty of publishing a few of Taro’s work right here. You may take heed to this track by Alt-J that’s devoted to Taro or watch The Mexican Suitcase video that speaks about a couple of negatives produced by Taro, Friedmann, and David “Chim” Seymour.

Books by Gerda Taro:

8. Helen Levitt (1913 – 2009)

For me (and plenty of different photographers as properly), capturing humor with images might be tough. However, Helen Levitt made it appear simple. An American photographer is thought for her road images, Levitt’s expertise didn’t cease there as she mastered capturing humor on the streets.

Helen Levitt is now thought-about the “most celebrated and least known female photographer of her time” and was a pioneer of shade images and shade road images. Today, there’s even an enormous debate over road images being monochrome or in shade.

Applying for and receiving not simply any grant however a prestigious Guggenheim grant, Levitt had a stellar alternative to discover her hometown. With the grant renewed for a second time in 1960, she honored the grant’s necessities and the world of images by capturing a whole lot of photographs that shifted from black and white to paint.

Books by Helen Levitt:

9. Imogen Cunningham (1883 – 1976)

An American photographer is principally recognized for her botanical work, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Imogen Cunningham was a member of the well-known direct images f/64 group. She was one of many first skilled feminine photographers together with her love, ardour, and dedication to the artwork reaching many disciplines of the craft.

One vital facet of Cunningham’s artistry is that she was very fascinated about human topics, particularly artists, together with her industrial landscapes exhibiting an plain “human footprint.” She is commonly related to different iconic Twentieth-century photographers like Ansel Adams, Minor White, and Dorothea Lange.

Books by Imogen Cunningham:

10. Margaret Bourke-White (1904 – 1971)

Margaret Bourke-White’s work has grow to be the paradigm of North American photographic journalism’s social and political dedication. She was notably fascinated about industrial images and obtained her first fee from Fortune journal in 1930.

During the Second World War, Bourke-White labored as a conflict correspondent and portrayed the customarily harsh actuality of conflict. Her transferring photographs of the liberation of the focus camps had worldwide repercussions when it comes to notion and consciousness.

Thanks to a fee from LIFE journal, Bourke-White moved to India in 1946 to seize the liberation of the Hindus. Her most iconic picture from this era is of Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel, which emphasised the significance of the spinning wheel as an emblem of India’s independence.

Books by Margaret Bourke-White:

11. Mary Ellen Mark (1940 – 2015)

Mary Ellen Mark was an incredible American photojournalist with a particular social give attention to individuals who have been “away from mainstream society.” Her most well-known work is Streetwise, which might be seen right here. Thanks to publications like LIFE, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, and The New York Times, her work has seen the sunshine of day. She was additionally a member of the Magnum Photo Agency for five years.

Although she is extensively often known as a photojournalist and documentary photographer, her photographs transcend genres. Her work isn’t like another information images as a result of they’re deeply rooted in actuality, with lots of the social struggles and problems with the time and period recorded within the human faces of her topics in what would in any other case be dimmed within the dry world of statistics.

Books by Mary Ellen Mark:

12. Sally Mann (1951 – )

Extremely well-known on the earth of nice artwork, Sally Mann’s favourite method has been massive format, black and white images. She facilities on the eerie facets of life and dares the viewer with photographs that always really feel odd to the common public eye.

Prolific on the subject of her topics, from landscapes to intimate and shut photographs of her circle of relatives members and family members, Mann is thought for utilizing her household as her main topics. As we will see on this magnificent piece of labor, she shares the intimacy of her personal younger kids, usually nude, going about their each day lives—consuming, sleeping, and taking part in.

You can see nice examples of her work right here. If you ever have the chance to attend an exhibition of her work, please accomplish that. You received’t remorse it!

Books by Sally Mann:

13. Susan Meiselas (1948 – )

Susan Meiselas is an American documentary photographer whose work has been revealed in lots of newspapers and magazines, together with The New York Times, The Times, Time, GEO, and Paris Match. Besides being a member of the Magnum Photo Agency since 1980, she obtained the 1979 Robert Capa Gold Medal and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992.

Her iconic picture titled Molotov Man grew to become an emblem for revolutionary causes, first in Nicaragua and later in different nations, very like Alberto Korda’s Guerrillero Heroico grew to become a world image. Meiselas additionally documented the El Mozote Massacre in 1981 through the civil conflict battle in El Salvador.

One of her most vital essays is Carnival Strippers, by which she documented the 2 faces of touring carnival reveals within the United States from 1972 to 1976.

Books by Susan Meiselas:

14. Tina Modotti (1896 – 1942)

Although she was born in Italy, Tina Modotti’s life and images have been strongly marked by the point she spent in Mexico together with her images conveying her personal sensitivity to Mexican tradition whereas reflecting the evolution of her political concepts. Immersed within the avant-garde Mexican scene, she created an vital photographic archive concerning the tradition and politics of the nation after the revolution.

Many consider that Modotti tried to stability the dichotomy between aesthetics and politics by presenting them with absolute class. By far, her most iconic picture is Worker’s Parade. More of her work might be discovered right here.

Books by Tina Modotti:

15. Vivian Maier (1926 – 2009)

Vivian Maier was not often known as a photographer like the opposite ladies on our checklist. Instead, she labored as a nanny for 4 many years and carried her digital camera round in her spare time to pursue and acquire moments on the streets.

Maier took over 150,00 images throughout her lifetime and has rewritten the historical past of road images together with her work. She is a good instance of the significance of regularly revisiting historical past.

Her photographs have been fully unknown throughout her lifetime and remained unpublished. Her photographs have been for her and nobody else. Her non-public images have been controversially found by John Maloof, which is why her most treasured photographs are actually accessible for our delight. You can see extra of her work right here and right here.

You may watch the documentary movie Finding Vivian Maier to know extra about her beliefs. Afterward, possibly you’ll have your individual questions on her work’s controversial discovery and publication.

Books by Vivian Maier:

Famous Female Photographers | Conclusion

In conclusion, these 15 well-known feminine photographers have made an unbelievable contribution to the artwork of images. They have pushed boundaries and challenged norms to create gorgeous artworks. We can all be taught from their instance and proceed to help feminine photographers of their endeavors.

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