The Female Gaze: A Survey of Photographs by Women from the 19th to the 21st Centuries
The Female Gaze:A Survey of Photographs by Women from the 19th to the 21st Centuries is an exhibition of photographs made by women from the 19th century to the present day. Since the beginning of the medium’s history, women have played a vital and sustained role in its invention and the making of photographs, which is not the case in any other visual medium.
Constance Talbot, wife of the co-inventor of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot, made her most insightful contribution in the autumn of 1843 when she set to work with the first few lines of her friend Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies. She reported in a letter to her husband on December 1, 1843, “I have composed a little frame with the 4 first lines of the ‘Last Rose of Summer’ & it is now waiting for brighter weather.” Sometime shortly after that, Talbot arranged her cutout letters in front of the camera and produced a negative of the text that is still printable today.
Women have made master works across the medium’s genres including portraits, travel, landscape, documentary and conceptual photography. The creative impact of women photographers as diverse as Julia Margret Cameron in the 19th century, Bernice Abbott in the 20th century and Carrie Mae Weems in the 21st century have defined the very best that the medium is capable of.
Cameron, Julia Margaret, British (1815-1879) Herbert George Fisher [1868] Albumen print, black and white; 30x25cm Paul Cava Gallery purchase through a Patrons of Art gift, April 1986Photographs spanning the history of the medium have been selected from the Haverford College Fine Art Photography Collection. Works by Lady Hawarden, Imogene Cunningham, Claude Cahun, Nan Goldin, Vivian Maier and Tacita Dean among others are included in the exhibition forming a parallel history of the medium. These photographs when placed within the larger context of the medium’s history highlight women’s continuing contributions to photography from its beginnings to the present day.
October 24 to December 6, 2014
Atrium Gallery, Marshall Fine Arts Center Campus Map
Opening Reception
Friday, October 24
5:30-7:30p.m.
Cameron, Julia Margaret, British (1815-1879) Mrs. Herbert George Fisher [1868] Albumen print, black and white; 30x25cm Paul Cava Gallery purchase through a Patrons of Art gift, April 1986
Cunningham, Imogen, American (1883-1976) Ron and my father, Isaac Burns Cunningham [1936] Gelatin silver print, black and white, 12x10cm Freeman’s Auction House purchase through William Williams, September 2013
Weems, Carrie Mae, American (1953- ) Untitled [Woman and Daughter with Makeup] [1990] Silver gelatin print, black and white; 26x26cm Light Work purchase, 2011
Bassman, Lillian, American (1917-2012) Carmen, New York, Harper’s Bazaar [1963, 1994] Silver gelatin print, black and white; 35x28cm Museum of Contemporary Photography purchase through the Presidential Discretionary Fund, February 1999
Lange, Dorothea, American (1895-1965) Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California [1936, 1980s] Photogravure, black and white; 30x24cm Dorothea Lange Archives and Library purchase through the Patrons of Art and William E. Williams, December 1985
Dean, Tacita, English (1965- ) 66 DEAD 4/5 leafed clovers [2008] Limited edition silver gelatin print on fiber paper; 35x50cm, Rare Book Photography Fund Purchase, 2010
Bourke-White, Margaret, American (1904-1971) Captain drinks while prisoners work [1936, 1999] Silver gelatin print, black and white; 35x28cm, Life Gallery of Photography purchase, August 2010
Taylor, Judith, American (1953-2010) May 12 [1999-2007] Gelatin chloride printing-out paper, colored; 10x14cm, Gift of the estate of the artist, 2011
O’Neil, Elaine, American (1946- ) August 6, 1998 [1998, 2005] Toned silver gelatin print, black and white; 40.6×50.8cm, Elaine O’Neil Photography purchase, June 2012
Sherman, Cindy, American (b. 1954) Untitled [Mrs. Claus] [1990] C-print, colored; 32.7×22.9cm, Freeman’s Auction sale, September 2012
Smith, Hillery M., American, Haverford College ’94, (b. 1972) “Kwame and Georgina [1993] Kwame plate 12, Gelatin silver print, black and white; 36x28cm, Hillery Smith gift, 1995
Troeller, Linda, American, (b. 1949) Hot River, Italy [1990s] Dye emulsion or chromogenic print, colored; 35x27cm, Photo Review auction purchase through the Presidential and Provostial Discretionary Funds, 1999
MartÃnez-Cañas, Maria, Cuban (b. 1960) Muralla, guerrero y fortaleza (Wall, warrior and fortress) [1986-1987] Gelatin silver print, black and white; 33x66cm, Photo Review auction purchase, Winter 1990
Kaufman, Sarah, American, Haverford College ’03, (b. 1981) Untitled [nude] [2002 or 2003] Toned gelatin silver print, black and white; 38x38cm, Sarah Kaufman exchange via William E. Williams, 2003
Arbus, Diane, American (1923-1971) Albino Sword Swallower at a Carnival [1970] Silver gelatin print, black and white; 51x41cm Sander Gallery purchase through a Patrons of Art gift by William E. Williams, December 1986
Model, Lisette, American, born in Austria (1906-1983) Sailor and Girl [ca. 1979] Gelatin silver print, black and white; 51x40cm, Witkin Gallery purchase, May 1984
![Cameron, Julia Margaret, British (1815-1879) Herbert George Fisher [1868] Albumen print, black and white; 30x25cm Paul Cava Gallery purchase through a Patrons of Art gift, April 1986](https://exhibits.haverford.edu/finearts/files/2015/08/87479_lg.jpg)
