By Tata Rossi 20 days ago, Professional photography
Female photographers are often overlooked in the photo industry, and they deserve to be noticed and lauded for their talent. I decided to choose the top 15 representatives of the field, who have achieved recognition in different genres.
I will talk about contemporary female photographers and those who started their professional path several decades ago. You can learn about their interesting shooting tricks, impediments they had to overcome, and various things that motivate them to develop.
Location: New York, US
Annie Leibovitz is one of the most renowned portrait photographers with a distinctive vision. Her career started in Rolling Stone magazine, and that was actually a stepping stone to further success. Her style can be characterized as whimsical and experimentative, which is one of the reasons why world celebrities want to be her models.
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There is hardly a high-profile fashion magazine that has never featured images taken by Annie Leibovitz. She has photographed the best talents in cinematography, music, art, literature, and other industries. You have probably seen her portraits of Kate Moss, Queen Elizabeth II, and John Lennon. When shooting for Vogue and other fashion editorials, she likes experimenting with the subjects and transforms her models into fantasy figures. The results are always amazing and you can try Annie Leibovitz masterclass if she inspires you.
Location: Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Belonging to the group of the world’s most famous photographers, Ellen Von Unwerth is unmatched when it comes to depicting women as subjects rather than objects. She believes every lady is special and powerful in a positive way and does her best to show this inner strength. At the beginning of the 1990s, there was a trend to use images of Hollywood actresses as magazine covers and this woman photographer came up with a new concept of the “Supermodel”.
Actually, it was Ellen Von Unwerth, who helped Claudia Schiffer to achieve international fame. First, she photographed Claudia for ELLE and later they continued cooperating within the Guess campaign. That was a special period for them both and it denoted the beginning of fantastic career opportunities. The photographer is constantly discovering new facets of the art, accentuating a variety of female forms and personalities.
Location: New York, US
Cass Bird sticks out from the cohort of famous woman photographers with her playful, cheerful, and personal style. She takes different types of photos, starting with Vogue glamorous shots and ending with presidential portraits. She adheres to editorial and sensitive approaches when photographing actors, musicians, and artists.
Her style stems from the concept of genuine femininity and masculinity. Thanks to her distinctive vision, she is at front and center of contemporary culture.
Her portfolio is replete with arresting images of Millie Bobbie Brown, Gigi Hadid, the Obamas, and more. If you want to discern the secret of her success, you should thoroughly examine the collections of The Brooklyn Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.
Location: Toronto, Canada
It is hard to overestimate the contribution of Petra Collins to the development of the modern female gaze. She manages to create dreamy and ethereal aesthetics that are very easy to recognize. Petra sees her mission in studying the ineffable femininity that is hidden in some women. Besides, she encourages ladies to define their identity and character by photographing them from an offbeat perspective.
Among famous photographers women, she is an unrelenting proponent of film photos and natural lighting. If she can’t do without artificial light sources, she uses as few of them as possible. Most of her images have a pastel color palette, a soft focus, and minimum or no retouching at all.
She likes depicting the coming-of-age stage of a woman’s life, and her portraits of teenagers and young women are whoppingly popular. Petra Collins cooperates with well-known publications, including ELLE, Vogue, and i-D, and always adheres to her unique style.
Location: New York, US
Collier Schorr is fond of capturing off-kilter scenes and natural characters interacting in such environments. She has photographed Hari Nef, Lady Gaga, Zoe Kravitz, and other celebrities, who manifest their philosophy and values in a very unusual way. Her first works appeared in the late '80s and were published in her own books and such printed media as Dazed and AnOther.
The photographer also took images for Dior, Louis Vuitton, and Saint Laurent. She admits that she looks up to Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff when preparing for a photo session and pondering on the next characters.
Her latest works have a mixture of fashion and nature that are entwined very organically. She also actively uses props to create a well-arranged scene. However, she states that there is nothing more important than candid emotions.
Location: United Kingdom
Nowadays, Corinne Day is among the famous photographers women but she had to grapple with various difficulties till she achieved such a status. She learned all the intricacies of the shooting process on her own, gradually jumping from modeling to photography. In the '90s, she doggedly worked on developing her career and was among the first photographers who took images of young Kate Moss. Another important point in her track record is the styling of the grunge era.
She steered clear of the confines of fashion photos and photographed skinny girls in cheap nylon posing against a plain background. Corinne Day was a vivid ambassador of an anti-fashion trend that arose in the 1990s.
She promoted an unpolished, raw photography style and was in high demand among alternative magazines (Raygun, Interview, and Donna). Besides, she liked capturing the mood of Indie musical festivals and you have probably seen her images of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Moby, and The Cranberries.
Location: Connecticut, US
There is a group of female photographers who laser-focus on various social conflicts and Lynsey Addario is among them. She sheds light on human rights issues, the role of women in present-day society, wars, and different humanitarian crises in her pictures. She has taken a series of photos covering the political and cultural upheavals in Afghanistan. Her work is really perilous and she was even kidnapped twice in Iraq. However, her passion for displaying crucial moments of world history is stronger than fear.
She started as a freelance photographer for the Associated Press and The Boston Globe, and now partners with The New York Times, National Geographic, and TIME Magazine. Thanks to her persistent work and innate talent, she was named one of the top 5 influential photographers of the past 25 years by American Photo Magazine. In 2009, she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.
Location: Home Hill, Australia
Anne Geddes can be deservedly called the best female photographer when it comes to taking images of little children. She approaches this task very creatively and then edits pictures so that they can be included in books, calendars, and greeting cards. You can bump into such products all over the world. She is determined to develop this genre and she quickly adjusts to changeable market conditions.
Photography brings her both moral and financial satisfaction. She frequently shows what happens behind the scene and such short stories are very popular among her followers. Anne also partakes in various meetings and offers unique prints.
Location: New York, US
Talking about famous woman photographers, I can’t but mention Vivian Maier, though she has never been professionally engaged in this sphere. In fact, she worked as a nanny for 40 years. Vivian was very attentive to things happening around her and carried out a small camera in her bag to document different situations. In total, she took over 150K pictures and has overhauled the tradition of street photography.
Her images of Chicago and New York street life received immense popularity. Unfortunately, that happened only after her death in 2009. Her pictures were digitized and shared on Flickr. People were amazed by the vividness of the scenes and all photos went viral rather quickly. Maier became a real discovery in the photography world and is now ranked as one of the most amazing street photographers.
Location: New York, US
Initially, Lee Miller was a model for fashion magazines. However, when she moved to Paris, she got immensely interested in surrealism and joined a group of other people developing this cultural movement. Together with May Ray, she worked on the creation of new photographic techniques and over time shifted focus to capturing civil disturbances. Today, she is known as one of the most famous war photographers, documenting World War II.
Lee Miller managed to take images of momentous scenes in a sensitive way. Her most tear-jerking images are those depicting the liberation of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. Her work is truly amazing as she was one of the very few women accredited by the America Army as a military correspondent.
Another side of her life is no less impressive. She had romantic relationships with Pablo Picasso and photographed him over 1000 times. The artist, in turn, has painted her portrait 6 times.
Location: San Francisco, US
Many famous woman photographers concentrate on heart-breaking topics. Dorothea Lange decided to show the pain and turmoil of the Great Depression of the 20th century. The most powerful image from the series is Migrant Mother. Dorothea managed to display the horrific struggles of the American working class in that historical period.
Many consider her to be an icon among female photographers because her portraits are strikingly realistic. Some viewers even claim that they feel the emotion captured. Lange didn’t just show events but filled the frame with sorrow and frustration her models experienced. She is referred to as one of the founders of documentary genre.
Location: New York, US
Cindy Sherman has joined the group of female photographers who jockeyed for depicting post-war situations in a lifelike manner. Her works were presented at the Museum of Modern Art and enjoyed huge popularity. She is feted for her readiness to criticize social injustice and raise serious topics with the help of images. Even her self-portraits have a distinctive thought-provoking element.
Being one of the best self-portrait photographers, Cindy frequently experiments with makeup and accessories to become a completely different person or a movie character. Thus, she incites people to think about various masks we put on from time to time. Cindy rarely hires makeup artists, hairstylists, etc., and does all manipulations herself.
Location: California, US
Most famous women photographers practiced several shooting approaches and even combined them. Imogen Cunningham also followed such a path and the worldwide community knows her for detailed botanic images, intimate nudes, and industrial landscapes. She has also photographed celebrities and her portraits evoke genuine admiration. The most notable features of Imogen’s portraits are intimacy and pristine beauty.
Together with Ansel Adams, Cunningham was an active member of the f/6 community. The participants highlighted the importance of details in images and proper focusing. They believed that even simple subjects could be very interesting to photograph. Today, the photographer mainly takes images of flowers, favoring close-up shots.
Location: Virginia, US
Sally Mann has proven that an inborn talent can be more important than many hours of photography courses. She practiced a lot to understand the essence of photography without third-party help. Her first models were her relatives. In the late 20th century, she presented a collection of images featuring her small kids. She opted for intimate, even vulnerable poses and that was a great choice.
That series became very popular mainly because of the natural beauty of babies and the unique depiction of infant years. Sally also likes taking B&W portraits, which are deprived of colors but still emit a whole spectrum of emotions. Moreover, she frequently seeks inspiration in nature and is recognized as an accomplished landscape photographer. Salle Mann shares her knowledge in books and takes part in exhibitions.
Location: New York, US
Diane Arbus is one of the most famous film photographers. She decided to show that even people, who seem to belong to the fridges of society are important. The main characters of her photo stories are circus performers, transgender people, dwarfs, and people with mental problems.
Though she began in the commercial sphere, she was depressed because of limitations and quickly moved to street photography. She claims that images by Richard Avedon and Weegee inspire her for new creative projects. When choosing a new concept for a photo session, she tries hard to concentrate on interesting people and their feelings.
