Women Photographers

DrPablo

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I hadn't really discovered Diane Arbus until very recently when I looked through a book of her work. What an amazing eye for faces and scenes. She certainly looked for 'freaks', like those circus performers and transvestites and nudists. But even more amazing is how she took normal people and captured their most freakish moments. Even babies. I've never seen someone so effectively convey how weird we are, all of us.
 

Tony Egan

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Nicole,
I think you mentioned her in another post but I have been inspired by Carol Jerrems courage and drive as a photographer. To achieve what she did in such a short life... Vale Street 1975 is an amazingly powerful image and is one of Australia's great photographs. Here is an article which summarises her life and contribution. The seventies were "my decade" (age 12-21) so many of her images have a powerful connection for me. (Man, I was really scared of sharpies in my teens!!)
http://www.theage.com.au/news/film/the-70s-stripped-bare/2005/07/16/1121455933362.html
 
OP
OP

Nicole

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Tony, yes Carol Jerrems was/still is very inspiring and her photographs are stronger than ever. I thoroughly enjoyed the documentary on her as a photographer, which was on the ABC (I think) a year or so ago.
 

temujin

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cindy sherman. her work really revitalized the movement in "constructed" photography, which had been out of fashion for so long. she is simply brilliant, her untitled film stills are among my favorite works. each of those photos are so beautiful and enigmatic, since you don't know what is happening in each scene. and she took the art of self-portraiture to an entirely new level.
 

cliveh

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Rolleiflexible

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Since I wrote Post #2, allow me to chastise myself for not adding Bunny Yeager to the list.

Bunny Yeager : The Brilliant Selfies - Flashbak

“I was never a pin-up model. I did not pose for men individually like Bettie Page did. All the other models were wearing one-piece Jantzen and Catalina suits. I made my own and am beginning to think I invented the bikini, after the French did it.” – Bunny Yeager Was Bunny Yeager the …...
flashbak.com
 

chuckroast

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I see many familiar names listed in this thread but I think this relatively unknown (until a few years ago) found photographer is hands down near the top of the class. I'd go so far to say that her work stands of the same stature as Heri Cartier-Bresson or Atget, notwithstanding her obscurity during her working lifetime. A true treasure that so few people know about:

Vivian Maier - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

Pieter12

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Sorry you hadn’t known about her. There has been much discussion about the ethics and ownership of her work. And a film about 10 years ago.
 

benderscameracorner

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Ellen Von Unwerth was a major inspiration when I was starting out in photography and delusions of getting into fashion and portraiture. Just loved the sense of fun, playful and inherent but non-exploitative sexiness in her work.
 

chuckroast

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Pieter12 said:
Sorry you hadn’t known about her. There has been much discussion about the ethics and ownership of her work. And a film about 10 years ago.
Click to expand...

Oh I knew about her when the story first broke and saw the prints they made for the Chicago Public Library unveiling. I was just surprised she wasn't mentioned in this thread.

In my book, she was leagues better than the likes of Annie Leibovitz and the New York arts bunch. A long time ago, I lived in Chicago. She captured the rhythm of that city with pitch perfect precision.

A true American treasure and an artist for the ages.

(The tragedy is that it is unlikely she or anyone else could safely do today what she did those many decades ago..)
 

Pieter12

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I don't think there is any way to compare Liebovitz & Maier. Not even apples and oranges. Maybe grapes and potatoes.
 

Alex Benjamin

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Some of my favorites:

Evelyn Hofer
Latoya Ruby Frazier
Donna Ferrato
Judith Joy Ross
Tish Murtha
Susan Meiselas
Lois Conner


chuckroast said:
I was just surprised she wasn't mentioned in this thread.
Click to expand...

Thread is from July 2007. Same year Maier's photos and negatives were found. Some were made available on the web in 2008, but most after her death in 2009.

chuckroast said:
it is unlikely she or anyone else could safely do today what she did those many decades ago
Click to expand...

Why not ? Many street photographers around.
 

Pieter12

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Maybe today’s parent’s wouldn’t approve of their children being hauled around downtown by a street photographer/nanny.
 

chuckroast

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Because - unlike when I lived there - Chicago's previously fairly safe streets are no longer so. The actual crime rate was higher in the 1980s, but it was fairly localized. Today, the rate is lower, but it's everywhere. Previously safe areas are no longer. The city is in decline.
 

chuckroast

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Pieter12 said:
I don't think there is any way to compare Liebovitz & Maier. Not even apples and oranges. Maybe grapes and potatoes.
Click to expand...

Liebovitz was overrated and achieved fame primarily because she was plugged into the NYC arts and culture establishment. Much like her pal Susan Sontag, they were famous because they were darlings of the local set of sophisticates, but their real contribution to the arts was negligible.
 

Don_ih

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chuckroast said:
Liebovitz was overrated and achieved fame primarily because she was plugged into the NYC arts and culture establishment.
Click to expand...

She achieved fame primarily by being a main photographer for Rolling Stone, going on the road with musicians, taking quite impressive shots of bands up close, on and off stage - you know, being a photographer.

The staged costumed Vanity Fair shots came much later.

She's not overrated.
 

Rolleiflexible

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Oh come on. If you were reading Rolling Stone in the 1970s (I was), you were learning your visual syntax through Annie Leibovitz's photographs. She did amazing work. Her place in the culture is alongside the Stones and the Who as outsized influencers who shaped her generation.

An art dealer friend gets exasperated whenever someone walks into his gallery and protests that he could have made some piece of modern art selling for a high price. "But you didn't, did you?" Easy to belittle the success of another. Harder to top it.
 
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