Timeline of women in photography

This is a timeline of women in photography tracing the major contributions women have made to both the development of photography and the outstanding photographs they have created over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.

Clementina Maude and Isabella taken by their mother Lady Clementina Hawarden c.1861

Early 19th-century pioneers

1839

• Sarah Anne Bright (1793–1866) produces what is possibly the earliest surviving photographic image taken by a women.[1]
• Constance Fox Talbot (1811–1880), wife of the inventor Henry Fox Talbot, experiments with the process of photography, possibly becoming the first woman to take a photograph.[2]

1842

• Franziska Möllinger (1817–1880) becomes the first female photographer in Switzerland, taking daguerreotypes of Swiss scenes which she publishes as lithographs in 1844.[3]

1843

• Anna Atkins (1799–1871), also a friend of Henry Fox Talbot, publishes Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book with photographic illustrations.[4]
• Bertha Beckmann (1815–1901), opens a studio in Leipzig, running the business herself from his death in 1847.[5]

1844

• Jessie Mann (1805–1867) takes a photograph of the King of Saxony, probably becoming the first woman photographer in Scotland.[6]

1845

• Brita Sofia Hesselius (1801–1866) makes daguerreotypes in her photographic studio in Karlstad, moving her studio to Stockholm in 1857.[7]

1847

• Geneviève Élisabeth Disdéri (c.1817–1878) assists her husband André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in their Brest studio, later operating the business alone.[8]

1848

• Sarah Louise Judd (1802–c.1881) makes daguerreotypes in spring 1848, continuing for two years in Stillwater, Minnesota.[9]

1849

• Elise L'Heureux (1827–1896), together with her husband, sets up a daguerreotype studio in Quebec City, taking over the business in 1865.[10]

• 
  Sarah Anne Bright's Quillan Leaf (1839)
• 
  Anna Atkins' photogram of Algae (1843)
• 
  Franziska Möllinger's daguerreotype of Thun Castle (c.1844)
• 
  Geneviève Élisabeth Disdéri's Interior of St Mathieu (1869)

Later 19th-century

1850

• Julia Shannon (c. 1812 – c. 1852), the first known woman photographer in California, advertises her work with daguerreotypes in 1850.
• Thora Hallager (1821–1884) begins making daguerreotypes in Copenhagen, opening her own studio around 1857.[11]

1852

• Emilie Bieber (1810–1884) opens a daguerreotype studio in Hamburg.[12]
• Marie Kinnberg opens a daguerreotype studio in Gothenburg.[13]

1854

• Caroline Emily Nevill (1829–1887) and her sisters Henrietta (1830–1912) and Isabel (1831–1915) exhibit at the London Photographic Society.[14]

1856

• Virginia Oldoini (1837–1899) began taking photographs, mainly of herself in theatrical costumes.[15]
• Julia Ann Rudolph (also known as Julia Ann Swift and Julia Ann Raymond; c. 1820–1890) sets up her own photography studio in Nevada City, California.

1857

• Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822–1865) begins photographing in Ireland, later setting up her own private studio in London where she produced some 800 albumen prints.[16]

1864

• Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) begins taking photographs, becoming famous for her portraits of celebrities.[17]
• Louise Thomsen (1823–1907) establishes a business in Hellebæk near Helsingør.[18]

1867

• Elizabeth Pulman (1836–1900) assists her husband in his Auckland studio, taking over the business on his death in 1871.[19]

1869

• Thora Hallager photographs Hans Christian Andersen.[11]

1871

• Adelaide Conroy was operating from 56, Strada Stretta, Valletta, Malta until mid 1879 specialising mostly in Carte de visite and Albumen print.[20]

1876

• Frederikke Federspiel (1839–1913) is the first woman in Denmark to obtain a licence to trade in photography.[21]

1880s

• Mollie Fly (1847–1925) ran a photo studio from the 1880s to the early 1910s in Tombstone, Arizona.

1881

• Geraldine Moodie (1854–1945) establishes a studio in Battleford, Saskatchewan. She was later commissioned to create photographic records of western Canada.[22]

1888

• Mary Steen (1856–1939)) becomes Denmark's first female court photographer.[23]

1890

• Sarah J. Eddy (1851–1945) begins exhibiting photographs. Her most important exhibitions were at the New School of American Photography and the selection of American Women photographers at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900.[24]

1894

• Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) becomes the first women to open a studio in Washington, D.C.[25]

1895

• Julie Laurberg (1856–1925) opens a large successful photography business in Copenhagen's Magasin du Nord where she employed many women. Supported women's professional participation in photography.[26]

1896

• Harriet Brims (1864–1939) opens a studio in Ingham, Queensland, working as a professional photographer for 16 years.[27]

1899

• Laura Adams Armer becomes active as a photographer in San Francisco photographing chinatown and other areas of interest.[28]

• 
  Viscountess Hawarden's daughter Clementina Maude (1863)
• 
  Julia Margaret Camerons portrait of her daughter Annie (1864)
• 
  Thora Hallager's portrait of Hans Christian Andersen (1869)
• 
  Emilie Bieber's Quatuor Florentin (c.1875)
• 
  Elizabeth Pulman's portrait of Rewi Manga Maniapoto (1879)
• 
  Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione self portrait (1895)
• 
  Mary Steen's photograph of Queen Victoria and Princess Beatrice (1895)

Early 20th century

1900

• Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934) sold prints of her 1899 photograph "The Manger" (a portrait of fellow photographer Frances W. Delehanty) for $100, "the highest price ever paid for a photograph" to that time.[29]

1901

• Ladies' Home Journal featured a series of articles, "The Foremost Women Photographers in America", edited by Frances Benjamin Johnston and including Gertrude Käsebier (May), Mathilde Weil (June), The Allen Sisters (July), Emma J. Farnsworth (August), Eva Watson-Schütze (October), Zaida Ben-Yusuf (November), and Elizabeth Brownell (January 1902).[30]

1903

Col. Willoughby Verner, 1903 photograph by Acland.

• Sarah Acland is taking colour photos whilst on holiday in Gibraltar.[31]
• Christina Broom (1862–1939) starts selling photographs as postcards, later becoming the first female press photographer.[32]

1906

• Signe Brander (1869–1942) is charged by the City of Helsinki to document photographically the changing face of the city.[33]

1907

• Dora Kallmus (1881–1963) establishes a fashion studio in Vienna, later creating portraits of celebrities.[34]

1909

• The Women's Federation of the Photographers Association of America holds its organizational meeting in Rochester, New York, with Mary Carnell as its first president.[35]

1913

• Margaret Watkins [1884–1969) works as an assistant in a Boston studio, opening her own business in New York City in 1920.[36]

1915

• Katherine Russell Bleecker (1893–1996) makes three films about prison reform this year, using her own cameras. She is sometimes credited as the first professional camerawoman in American film.[37]

1916

• Trude Fleischmann (1895–1990) embarks on her career as a professional photographer, creating outstanding portraits of intellectuals and artists.[38]

1917

• Naciye Suman (1881–1973) creates a studio in Istanbul, becoming Turkey's first female photographer.[39]

1920s

• Marie al-Khazen (1899–1983) was a Lebanese photographer active in the 1920s; the photographs she created are considered to constitute a valuable and unique record of their time and place.[40]
• Elise Forrest Harleston (February 8, 1891 – 1970) was an early African-American photographer who set up a studio in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1922 that lasted into the early 1930s.

1925

• Ruth Harriet Louise (1903–1940) is hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to run their portrait studio, becoming the first female photographer to be active in Hollywood.[41]

1928

• Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) opens a studio in Cleveland, Ohio, becoming a photojournalist in 1929.[42]

1932

• Ylla (1911–1955) begins photographing animals, later becoming recognized as the world's most proficient animal photographer.[43][44]

1936

• Ilse Bing (1899–1998) creates monochrome images which are exhibited at the Louvre and New York's Museum of Modern Art.[45]
• Gerda Taro (1910–1937) is killed while covering the Spanish Civil War, becoming the first woman photojournalist to have died while working on the frontline.[46]

1939

• Homai Vyarawalla begins contributing to The Illustrated Weekly of India, developing a career as India's first female press photographer.[47]
• Berenice Abbott publishes her work of bird's eye and worm's eye view photographs of New York City in Changing New York.[48]

1940s

• Tsuneko Sasamoto (born 1914) joins the Japanese Photographic Society in 1940, becoming Japan's first woman photojournalist.[49]
• Carlotta Corpron (December 9, 1901 – April 17, 1988) begins making the "light drawings" that establish her as a pioneer of American abstract photography.

1941

• Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) becomes the first female war correspondent.[42]
• Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) is awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[50]

1945

• Marion Carpenter (1920–2002) becomes a White House photographer, frequently travelling with President Truman.[51]

Late 20th century

1950

• Thousands of striking 19th-century photographs made by Staten Island photographer Alice Austen (1866-1952) were rediscovered and published.[52]

1954

• Virginia Schau (1915–1989) becomes the first women to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography.[53]

1962

• Agnès Varda (born 1928) releases her French New Wave film Cléo from 5 to 7.[54]

1967

• Polish-born Rose Mandel (1910–2002), senior photographer in the art department at the University of California, is awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[55]

1972

• Belgian-born Liliane de Cock (1939–2013), photographic assistant to Ansel Adams from 1963 to 1972, is awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[56]
• Lorraine Monk (born c.1926) is honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contributions to photography.[57]

1973

• Sara Facio and María Cristina Orive co-found La Azotea, the first publishing house in Latin America dedicated to photography.[58]

1974

• Letizia Battaglia begins her career photographing the Sicilian Mafia.[59]

1978

• Graciela Iturbide (born 1942) becomes one of the founding members of the Mexican Council of Photography.[60]

1979

• Sara Facio, Alicia D'Amico, Annemarie Heinrich, and Maria Cristina Orive are all part of the group of original founders of the Consejo Argentino de Fotografía.[61]

1980

• Jane Evelyn Atwood receives the first W. Eugene Smith Grant for humanistic photography for her project on the lives of blind children.[62]

1991

• Annie Leibovitz becomes the first woman to hold an exhibition at Washington's National Portrait Gallery.[63]

21st century

2005

• Anja Niedringhaus (1965–2014) wins the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for her coverage of the Iraq War.[64]
• Bearing Witness, a documentary for American television, follows five women war journalists working in Iraq, including photographer Molly Bingham and camerawoman Mary Rogers.

2010

• Raymonde April (born 1953) is awarded the Order of Canada for her contribution to photography.[65]

See also

• List of women photographers
• Women photographers

References

1. "Sarah Anne Bright". Luminous-Lint. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
2. "Early Women Photographers: Part 1 (The Pioneers)". The Bone Lantern. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
3. "Möliinger, Louise Franiska" (in German). SIK ISEA. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
4. "Cyanotypes of British Algae by Anna Atkins (1843)". The Public Domain Review. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
5. "Bertha Wehnert-Beckmann (1815 –1901)" (in German). Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
6. Munro, Alistair. "Jessie Mann: The first ever female photographer?". The Scotsman. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
7. "Karlstadsfotografer i fotografins begynnelse: Den unika mamsell Hesselius" (PDF) (in Swedish). kulturarvvarmland.se. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
8. "Geneviève-Élisabeth Disdéri (1817?-1878)" (in French). BNF. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
9. Palmquist, Peter E.; Kailbourn, Thomas R. (2005). Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide: A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865. Stanford University Press. pp. 365–. ISBN 978-0-8047-4057-9.
10. "L'Heureux, Élise" (in French). Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
11. "Thora Hallager, 1821-1884" (in Danish). History of photography. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
12. Bake, Rita. "Emilie Bieber" (in German). Hamburg.de. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
13. Dahlman, Eva. "Kvinnliga pionjärer osynliga i fotohistorien" (in Swedish). Göteborgs Universitet. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
14. Taylor, Roger; Schaaf, Larry John (2007). Impressed by Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives, 1840-1860. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 353–. ISBN 978-1-58839-225-1.
15. "The Countess da Castiglione". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
16. "Lady Clementina Hawarden Biography". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
17. Daniel, Malcolm. "Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879)". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
18. "Marie Louise Thomsen, f. Molbech, 1823-1907" (in Danish). History of photography. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
19. "Elizabeth Pulman, Photographer". Historic Camera. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
20. Harker, Margaret (2000). Photographers of Malta 1840-1990. Malta: Patrimonju Malti. ISBN 99932-10-04-8.
21. Jensen, Bente. "Frederikke Federspiel (1839 - 1913)" (in Danish). Kvinfo. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
22. "Geraldine Moodie". Saskatchewan NAC. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
23. Thage, Tove. "Mary Steen (1853 - 1939)" (in Danish). Kvinfo. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
24. Peterson, Christian A. (2012). Pictorial Photography at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts: History of Exhibitions, Publications, and Acquisitions with Biographies of All 243 Pictorialists in the Collection. Minneapolis, Minn.: Privately Published. p. 71. OCLC 824617933.
25. "Frances Benjamin Johnston". MoMA. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
26. Ochsner, Bjørn. "Julie Laurberg" (in Danish). Gyldendal: Dansk Biografisk Leksikon. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
27. "Brims, Harriett Pettifore (1864 - 1939)". The Australian Women's Register. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
28. "Finding Aid to the Laura Adams Armer Photograph Collection PC-RM-Armer". Online Archive of California. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
29. Alvin Langdon Coburn, "American Photographs in London" Photo-era Magazine (January 1901): 212.
30. Frances Benjamin Johnson, Clio: Visualizing History.
31. Hudson, Giles (14 November 2012). "Images for the news release 'Sarah Angelina Acland re-discovered as one of the pioneers of colour photography'". Mattersphotographical (Blog). Retrieved 12 December 2018.
32. Brown, Mark (10 December 2014). "Museum honours Christina Broom – pioneer of news photography". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
33. Himberg, Petra (14 January 2014). "Signe Brander tallensi katoavan Helsingin" (in Finnish). Yle.fi. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
34. Silverman, Lisa. "Madame d'Ora". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
35. Maybelle D. Goolander, "History of the Woman's Federation of the P. A. of A." Bulletin of Photography (September 18, 1912): 417-419.
36. "Margaret Watkins". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
37. Alison Griffiths, Carceral Fantasies: Cinema and Prison in Early Twentieth-Century America (Columbia University Press 2016): 240-244. ISBN 9780231541565
38. Silverman, Lisa. "Trude Fleischmann". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
39. ""Mrs. Naciye Suman" International Art Photography Contest" (PDF). Sille Art Gallery. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
40. Yasmine Nachabe, "An Alternative Representation of Femininity in 1920s Lebanon: Through the Mise-en-Abîme of a Masculine Space" New Middle Eastern Studies 1(2011).
41. Abrams, Melanie (24 July 2011). "Star maker: the photographer Ruth Harriet Louise". The Telegraph. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
42. "Margaret Bourke-White". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
43. "Fall Kills Ylla, Camera Artist; Photographer Tumbles From Jeep in India as She Takes Pictures of Bullock Race". The New York Times. 31 March 1955. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
44. "Ylla 1911 – 1955". Pryor Dodge. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
45. "Ilse Bing – life and work". V&A. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
46. Lee, Felicia R. (22 September 2007). "A Wartime Photographer in Her Own Light". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
47. "Homai Vyarawalla: The trailblazer who became India's first woman photojournalist". BBC. 30 December 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
48. "Berenice Abbott". International Center of Photography. 2018-12-11. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
49. Nakata, Hiroko (8 May 2014). "Pioneer photojournalist blazed trails for women". The Japan Times. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
50. "Dorothea Lange". International Photography Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
51. "Marion Carpenter, 82". The Washington Post. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
52. "Old Friends Honor Miss Alice Austen. Photographer For 50 years Has Her Day". The New York Times. October 8, 1951. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
53. "Mrs. Walter M. Schau (Virginia M. Schau)". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
54. "Agnès Varda" (in French). Gala. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
55. "Forty University Staff Members receive Guggenheim Fellowships for 1967" University Bulletin 15(April 10, 1967): 147.
56. "Remembering Liliane De Cock Morgan, Photographer, assistant to Ansel Adams" The Ansel Adams Gallery (May 29, 2013).
57. Abbott, Louise (6 February 2008). "Lorraine Monk". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
58. Sanchis, Verónica (2018-11-30). "Foto Féminas' Library – María Cristina Orive – 1931-2017". Foto-Feminas. Archived from the original on 17 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
59. "Letizia Battaglia". International Center of Photography. 2018-04-13. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
60. "Graciela Iturbide". International Center of Photography. 2016-03-02. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
61. "Alicia D´Amico, Fotografías". ArteHispano (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-12-18.
62. "Jane Evelyn Atwood". International Center of Photography. 2018-01-31. Retrieved 2018-12-12.
63. Somerstein, Rachel (27 October 2008). "Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens". PBS. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
64. "Anja Niedringhaus, Pulitzer-winning photographer, killed in Afghanistan". The Washington Post. 4 April 2014. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
65. "Order of Canada for Raymonde April". Concordia. 29 November 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2010.