Photography - a Feminist History : How Women Shaped the Art

From the fashion studio to the front line, social justice movements to selfies, women have transformed photography at every stage in its short history. For some, gender is front and center of their work, for others it's beside the point. All are affected by the power structures beyond their lenses. Far too many are overlooked.

Photography - A Feminist History explores how women's rights and societal attitudes to gender across the world have shaped those who have become photographers, the kinds of work they have made, and how their stories have been written - and rewritten - over time. Mapping photography's history against gender-based rights, social justice movements, and shifting cultural norms, it shines a light on the factors that have motivated, supported and inhibited women and non-binary photographers from the 1800s to the present day.

How did the abolitionist movement impact women's entry into the field? What does photography have to do with laws around menstrual rights? Is there even such a thing as a "feminist image"?

International in scope, Photography - A Feminist History includes the work of over 200 photographers, both established and lesser known, with thematic essays and extended texts on 75 practitioners, many compiled from interviews with the author.