Women Photographers

[Helen B]

also

Isabella Jedrzejczyk
Jo Spence
Candida Höfer
Hilla Becher (as one half of the famous team)

 

[Allen Friday]

Anne Larsen--I have two of her photographs on my walls at home. They inspire me every day.

 

[foxyscootie]

Lorna Simpson
Renee Cox
Cordetta Spells

 

[photomc]

Laura Gilpin - was fortunate to see the working copy of her last book, which has not been published as of today

Nell Dorr
Carlotta Corpron - two ladies who's work is quite under rated and a real treat to view..

Laura Wilson - worked with Avendon on the Amercian West project

check them out, they will surprise you I think.

 

[Gay Larson]

I'll second Debbie Fleming Caffrey. She has taught me so much and I value her friendship. Another modern day photographer that I admire is Joyce Tenneson. I also love Margaret Bourke-White and Dorthea Lange. And many of my unknown friends.

 

[mtbbrian]

Susan Meiselas, she has been with Magnum for several years and I was fortunate enough to meet her back in college.
Brian

 

[Mike Lopez]

Paula Chamlee
Diane Arbus
Sally Mann
Mary Ellen Mark
Imogen Cunningham's botanical pictures

 

[Gustavo_Castilla]

My Favorites are ....
Diane Arbus
Sally Mann
RUTH BERNHARD
Dorothea Lang
Imogen Cunningham
Tina Modotti
Dorothy Norman

 

[blaze-on]

Barbara Morgan, as one not yet mentioned.

Not necessarily an inspiration nor do I think in terms of male or female photographers.

Our local Museum of Photography has a few of her originals.
They always impress me.

http://images.google.com/images?q=Barbara+Morgan&hl=en&um=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=title

 

[Muihlinn]

Gerda Taro and Berenice Abbott as nobody makes justice for them, there are a bunch of [very] interesting others, like those of f64 group, but also it's so difficult to find monographies about them.

BTW I'm surprised how many of you name some more or less actual people which surely won't resist the incoming tide of time, althought this is only a personal opinion, so it has little to do with personal inspiration, and I do not want making meat of it. Just a random thought.

 

[Nicole]

QUESTION: How do these women influence your own photography?

QUESTION: How does the work from these women influence your own photography?

 

[foto-r3]

I also chime in on Mary Ellen Mark, Diane Arbus, and Susan Meiselas, whose book "Carnival Strippers" is a modern classic and equal in importance to D. Lyon's "The Bikeriders".

Certainly among the greats, as yet not mentioned:

Cristina Garcia Rodero, (Magnum Photos member nominee, 2005, I believe the only Spaniard). Like Meiselas, she published a seminal work in the beginning of her career--in this case "España oculta"/"Hidden Spain"--and then went on to document a broad range of events and places.

These two, less well known, but certainly worth a look:

Graciela Iturbide, who studied for a time with Alvarez-Bravo, very good.

Lee Miller (also mentioned above), one-time Man Ray assistant, who also amassed an impressive body of work of her own.

Having just now seen Nicole's question, let me just say that these women have influenced me as have any other photographers: on the basis of their work, regardless of gender.

As a sidenote, and at the risk of stating the obvious, let it also be said that for a certain type of documentary work (e.g. Mark in "Falkland Road", Meislas in "Carnival Strippers" and Rodero, as per her own confession, in many hostile situations), being a woman is not only an advantage but also absolutely essential.

 

[Struan Gray]

I listed women who had directly inspired my photography, rather than women such as Susan Meiselas who are inspirational at all levels, but who have not had much effect on the way I take pictures. I also have a different relationship to canonical classics like Lee Miller or Imogen Cunningham, and they tend to lurk in the background of my visual culture rather than having a direct influence on my own work. Like the men who inspire me, the women tend to be contemporary and I don't worry to much about whether they will pass time's test as well as my own.

Susan Derges' work is original, thoughtful, conceptual, and beautiful. It's a rare combination, and a highly personal one. She inspires me because she dares to follow her own muse and not follow the crowd, and yet is able to persuade others that the path she has taken was well-worth the walk, if only they had been able to see it.

Sally Gall, Rachel Brown and Lyn Davis all have a way of mixing formal composition with informal subject matter and/or subtle variations in texture that mirrors what I am trying to do in my own photography. They have investigated problems related to those I am struggling with myself, and although their particular solutions might not be directly applicable to my own case, it is inspiring to know that solutions can be found.

Cig Harvey has a wonderful sense of colour. I have a low tolerance for the Francesca Woodman school of adolescent introspection, but every now and then I come across photographs which defy my dislike. Harvey's humour and wit help a lot, but I am mostly attracted to her palette and the way the colours in her photos work together at a level beyond the ordinary.

Sonja Thomsen's 'Surface' and 'Churn' series work for me on a similar level, although they are less likable images and you have to be more willing to think of her photographs as ways of putting tones on paper, and not windows onto a thing worth seeing.

Like all Dads with cameras I photograph my kids. Sally Mann's look is a bit too feral to impose on my brood, but I like her lack of sentimentality and her insights into the mental life of her children. Another photographer I came across recently who made me think was Jocelyn Lee: her 'Childrens' Games' series is well worth a look.

PS: all my examples have websites and unique enough names that they turn up in Google with little effort.

PPS: Oh, and another favourite who deserves a plug: Sirkka-Liisa Kontinnen.

 

[SuzanneR]

The first three I mentioned, Julia Margaret Cameron, Gertrude Kasebier, and Chansonetta Stanley Emmons, I admire for their work made with such a new medium.

Kasebeier and Emmons made images that revolved around marriage, children and family.... my personal favorite subject for the moment. I refer to their work a lot through a couple of out of print books, as they are both hard to find on the web. I think Kasebier felt somewhat constricted within her own marriage, and as a mother. Her feelings on the matter are pretty clear in the photographs. She was a photographer very much of her time in terms of technique, which was very painterly, but she had a modern sensibility the way women (and men) should live within the context of family life. Her sitters look engaged, and full of life. Kasebier I supect, was very engaged in her art, and found the mores and expectations of her time difficult to reconcile with her own passions.

Emmons was a young widow, and she recorded images of rural life in Maine. She photographed the farmers shucking corn, widows in their kitchens, children walking to school, and she did it eloquently. It's a rare body of work that is an amazing, and rather rare document to early 20th c. rural life in the U.S.

Cameron... I admire her ability to put a pair of wings on a child, and make a poignant image, that doesn't sentimentalize that child or become too cute. It's such a cliche image, now, and plenty of children's portrait photographers put these adorable little wings on their subjects, and it somehow takes away from WHO that child really is. Heck... if I were to do that, I'd probably end up with an over sappy, and way too "cute" portrait! With that said, I do find some of her tableaux of biblical stories with, say, three models a little forced.

Another from my list... Helen Levitt... what can I say? No one has managed to capture the exuberance and physical pleasure and pain of childhood quite as well as she has. Not to mention... her unique view of the incredible bustle that are the streets of NYC.

And to answer your question, Nicole.. I'm not interested in copying these women photographers, but I aspire to make photographs that move me, as I've been moved by theirs, and I hope to bring the same level of passion and commitment to my work as they brought to theirs.

I have a several more names on my list, and if I get a minute later, today, I will add a few thoughts on some of them

 

[PhotoHistorian]

Sanders in trouble already! New wife / photog didn't make the list.

Emulsion magazine will devote an entire issue to this question in the next couple of months. One (of very many) that fascinates is Margrethe Mather. She was every bit the equivalent of Weston, yet he spiraled up, and she down. Curious that.

Perhaps not so curious. I consider Imogen to also be the equivalent or better of EW yet a lifetime of work often equal or better than her counterpart went very nearly un-noticed. Maybe Margrethe saw the writing on the wall?

Margrethe Mather was actually a superior photographer to Edward Weston when they met in 1912. Til the end of his life, Weston always described her as, "the first important woman in my life." She was the teacher and he the student in the mid teens of the 20th century. Mather was also the only partner Weston ever had and the only photogrpaher to co-sign a print with Edward.
Mather basically stopped photographing by 1930. A great deal was due to her failing health. So as Edward's career was advancing hers stopped.
My personal selection for women photographers is Bernice Abbott. In fact, I consider Bernice overall the best photographer of the 20th century man or woman rivaled only by Alfred Stieglitz. For Bernice was the complete photographert. She was a portraitist, a documentarian, a scientific photographer and also inventor of photographic equipment. She was also a very early photo historian who saved the life work of Atget. No other photographer except Alfred Stieglitz was more diversified and accomplished in so many areas as was Bernice Abbott.

Walker

 

[Struan Gray]

With that said, I do find some of her tableaux of biblical stories with, say, three models a little forced.

Me too. But there was a nice review of the big Cameron show a few years ago by Janet Malcolm (NYRB Feb.4, 1999), in which she pointed out that there are no known paintings of the BVM-and-child in which the infant Jesus glares at the viewer with undisguised loathing.

I've always like Lady Hawarden's photographs among the early women pioneers. Not quite as melodramatic as Cameron, but with an engagement that rewards contemplation. The V+A has a fair bit online.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/photography/photo_focus/hawarden/highlights/index.html

 

[photomc]

Nell Dorr's Mothers and Daughters is one of the works inspired after the death of one of her daughters. Her work if full of feeling - the magic I try to place into my own work.

Laura Gilpin, is another who photographed her entire life, it seems, and it was her passion for the people of the Southwest, that inspired her. That passion shows in much of her work.

Carlotta Corpron - well, she is one of those that has taught me, that sometimes it is light and form that can be the subject. Her work, is more abstract in many ways. She shows that much earlier than some of us think, there were photographers reaching for new ways of expression.

 

[Merg Ross]

Although not as prolific as Imogen Cunningham, her friend and colleague Alma Lavenson deserves mention. She was invited to exhibit at the inagural f:64 exhibition in 1932 (with four prints). Her major work spanned the period from the late 1920's to the late 1940's.

 

[Mick Fagan]

Olive Cotton, her "Tea Cup Ballet" inspired me to think just what could be done with everyday stuff.

Mick.

 

[sionnac]

Vaughn Sills - studied with her at Simmons - her book One Family changed the way I think about photographing people. Intimacy and openness always, and don't forget the Polaroid!
Eudora Welty's photographs are also deeply personal and excellent. She developed in her kitchen. She's also a favorite writer of mine.
Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie - her photographs are fierce and fine.
Sally Mann's Immediate Family is one of my favorite books. Beautiful work.

 

[Robert Hall]

I would have to say that the photographer that has most influenced my life is my mother.

She was the 3rd generation of photographer in the family growing up in a small and rural Utah town. Grandpa owned the general store and was president of the bank there. It allowed mom to afford film and development of same.

She photographed her friends as she really picked up the camera as a means of expression in her teenage years. We have several albums of life in the small town. As she grew in what would be a life long love of photography, she began to experiment figure studies. Her first was of a good friend of hers that asked to be photographed like Marylyn Monroe. They went to an old stone cabin and posed her friend in one of the windows that was only left now as the frame. She posed her with her back facing the camera and in her long blonde hair, held her fingers as they would run through the tresses with a well placed diamond ring on her hand.

She photographed the scene with an old 620 sized film, Zeiss Ikon. It had to be focused via distance on the rail. It had a very sharp lens, but with only a good estimation on distance, the images always came out a little soft. Razor sharpness was never really an issue with my mother anyway. She told me it was what wasn't in the photo that led the mind to ponder on the photograph.

She continued to photograph her friends in various states of undress for several years. The first at 14 years of age, the last was in her 60's, a fair body of work that was only shown locally at her request. Although modesty was never something that was even thought of in the house, she kept me from hanging out at most of the shoots, in retrospect, perhaps a good thing for a teenage boy. One point of interest on the story is that since she was in a small conservative post war town, she could not show the work that started in the mid 40's until the mid 60's and still made the papers cry out with prudish cat calls.

I picked up on photography at the age of 5 and while I have shot a fare share of figures, I find that my lust is for iconic landscapes, strong, single subject images that have been criticized as lonely. I can pick up many of my mothers prints and see the same. I suppose she has had more of an influence than I may suspect.

 

[foto-r3]

Robert,

Thanks for sharing. I could not help but be overcome by emotion while reading. Heartfelt.

 

[George Papantoniou]

Candida Höfer and Hilla Becher that Helen mentioned have influenced my work. It would be too difficult (and long, and boring) to describe or try to explain how.

Francesca Woodman has haunted me as an artist ever since I saw her work and read about her... my work is quite different, since my personality is different (I guess) and so I cannot really be influenced (at least, I cannot be so directly influenced) by her work. She's my favourite photographer, though.

Who knows, maybe FW's work influences me more that I think, only it does so unconsciously...

 

[JohnArs]

Helen Bach just on board
Anna Schudel Halm
Toto Frima
Judy Dater
Jaschi Klein
Katharina Krauss - Vonow
I was inspired by Toto Frima to do some self nude work in the early 90is Jaschi Klein comes from movie and I find here scenes very specialy and I was looking to get similar scenes for a short while.
Now work on my on style, Armin

 

[mtbbrian]

Great story Robert!
I commend you for sharring it here in such a public forum.
In some way, my mother is an artistic influence on me, but in a different way.
She plays the violin.
Brian