srt101fan

This video was part of an exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, "The New Woman Behind the Camera".

"A global phenomenon, the New Woman was a symbol of female empowerment based on real women making revolutionary changes in life and art. Meet eight pathbreaking women photographers, including Dorothea Lange, Tsuneko Sasamoto, and Homai Vyarawalla, who made significant advances in modern photography."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTBcbCFALFE

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

A very interesting video. Thank you for posting it.

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

Impressive and educational video of iconic pioneers in the field of photography. Examples of incentive and initiative. Thank you for posting the link.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

Of course the two giants of women photographers were Margret Bourke-White and the other is the one most never seem to get on the lists, Julia Margaret Cameron. The best description of Julia Margaret Cameron is the old gay observation about Ginger Rogers, yes Fred Astaire was a great dancer, no question about that, but think about the fact that Ginger did the same dancing, while following Fred's lead, doing much of it backwards and in a long skirt while wearing high heels.

Julia Margaret Cameron did photography under conditions that would have caused most men to give up or shoot themselves in the head! Most modern and gifted portrait photographers give the nod to Cameron as defining the manner of the photographic portrait. Her work was original, outside and beyond her time, unique and completely visionary.

I regard the work of Julia Margaret Cameron to be that of a pathfinder for photography, while the work of Margret Bourke-White is most likely so outside the realms of gender labeling that her work stands so outside the work of any 20th century photographer that her life and work should be considered outside the rest of photographers of the 20th century. If I was asked for a reference point in modern art I would say that to photography was akin to the work and life of Marcel Duchamp. And so that we are clear on this, Man Ray and his art were just that ART, to think he was a photographer is so limited a grasp of who and what Man Ray was to the larger world of art is to miss the boat on who he was as an influence on 20th century art.

srt101fan

Interesting comments - thanks, Timmers.

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

I would go further, but must be cautious, the Chines photographer had work of no great merit, but then we are only seeing a small selection of her work. What is quite disturbing about her work that was presented, was how she showing us images of Mao, another good guy (much like Reni Riefenstahl portrait of Hitler).

My issue that I have with Mao was that like Hitler and Stalin, Mao was a dictator, the difference is that his oppression of his people took on a dimension that was so much greater than the other two fascist, that it pale in comparison. The images of Mao appear to be the 'party line' type of photographic work.

It is a sad thing to say but there were photographers like Eisenstaedt, a Jewish journalist, who made 'portraits of individuals like Joseph Goebbels, Hitler and the Nazi crew for what they were, that revealed them to be the horrific individual that they were discover to be after the fact, and these were presented to the world at the time when these photographers knew and spoke truth to the fact Images much like those of Krupp, made by Arnold Newman, after the war, when he had been 'sanitized' by his government, though Newman (also a Jewish photographer refused to dance to the political tone of his time). Newman knew that Krupp was who he was, even after the fact. the representation of Krupp were entirely intentional and Newman manipulated the situation to express 'his truth' through a visionary ideal to remind the world of Krupp's past deeds.