Coffee with @wayneford is back! Bringing us the freshest and brightest talent for our next cohort of Heroines, Wayne Ford will be kicking off his nominations for 2021 on March 8, for International Women’s Day. Follow Wayne Ford on Twitter to see who he will put forward for Heroine-status!
Do you have some nominations of your own? We’d love to to hear! We are always looking for a diverse photographers to promote and celebrate. Head to the nomination form to highlight a potential Heroine…
Wayne Ford is a graphic designer, creative director and visual consultant working in the area of communication.
A former art director of the Observer newspapers colour supplement, art director of the RSA Journal, and creative director of Haymarket Business Media; he has created designs for over 50 media brands, and now works with a broad range of clients across the spectrum of visual communication – with a focus on content.
His interest in photography is two fold; firstly, his professional interest reflects the importance of photography within his past and present projects, whilst on a personal level he holds a passionate interest in the medium and its history.
Photo credit: Luca Sage
Summer 2018
Coffee with @wayneford has become one of the highlights of the #HundredHeroines day. Just after 06.00 (BST), we’re poised on Twitter, with coffee cups in hand, to see who Wayne will nominate. He’s pledged to nominate one #heroinic photographer a day until the end of the campaign and he’s introducing us to new photographers and some really exciting work. He’s also posting nominations for our #100HistoricalHeroines, the trailblazers of women in photography. If you’re looking for a virtual summer school on female photographers, look no further than Wayne Ford’s Twitter feed. Thanks Wayne for bringing us such a great start to every day! #HeroinesHero.
2021 Nominations
Katerina Jebb
Born in England. Katerina lives and works in Paris, France.
‘Who since 1991 has been exploring the possibilities of imaging technology; first through a series of self-portraits, before shifting her gaze to a wider subject matter.’
Widline Cadet
Born in Haiti, Widline currently lives and works in the US.
‘A Haitian born artist who examines race, memory and black Caribbean cultural identity; in what she calls “a semi-imagined world grounded in my experience.’’
Eman Ali
Eman Ali works between London and Oman.
‘An Oman based visual artist who in her 2019 series ‘Succession,’ uses archival material to explore the concerns she harbours for her countries uncertain political future’
Silvia Rosi
Silvia living and working between London, UK and Modena, Italy.
‘Using the self-portrait the artist traces her Togolaise heritage through the narrative of restaged family snapshots. Representing both mother and father, and their journey from Togo to Italy’
Maria Miesenberger
Maria lives and works in Sweden.
‘Who in her photographic works (she also works with sculpture) redacts snapshots from her own family history; raising questions around the past and the present.’
Hanneke van Leeuwen
Hanneke lives and works Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
‘In her long-term series ODE, she explores how her own and the collective female body is viewed, and what being female means today’
Chanell Stone
Chanell is living and working in Oakland, CA.
‘Who questions the insular views and historical erasure of Blackness within the natural landscape, and whom it is intended for; through the self-portrait in her series ‘Natura Negra’.’
Helena Blomqvist
Helena is a Swedish photographer.
‘Whose meticulously constructed tableaux – inspired by dreams, nightmares, myths and fairytales – with their muted palette; transport the viewer to an alternate world’
Judith Joy Ross
Judith is an American photographer.
‘Working exclusively through the portrait, and long-form series that incl. swimmers, war protesters, politicians. She reduces her images to the minimum, the photographer’s eye and the subject’s presence’
Sondra Meszaros
Sondra is a Canadian photographer.
‘Who through collage and appropriated images explores counter narratives of female sexuality and historical portrayal’
2018 Nominations
Khadija Saye
1992-2017
Explored her Gambian-British identity through a series of compelling self-portraits.
Joy Gregory. A British artist whose work focuses upon and explores the concerns of race, gender and cultural differences in contemporary society. (From the series, Girl Thing)
Ruth Orkin (1921-1985)
1921-1985
A photojournalist who began her career in the 1940s with The New York Times, Life and Look; and produced a number of books incl: A World Through My Window.
Eleanor Macnair, an artist who recreates photographs in Play-doh, pairing each down to form and colour; in what she calls her “strange tribute to photography.”
EleanorMacnairLOOK3
Ira Wright Martin
1886-1960
A photographer whose work is firmly rooted within the Pictorialist movement; but who also explored abstraction.
Carolyn Drake, a documentary photographer who through collaboration with her subjects frequently expresses multiple perspectives and narratives in her long form series.
Two Rivers by Carolyn Drake
Ruby Washington
1952-2018
A photojournalist who was the first African-American woman to be appointed staff photographer at @nytimes.
Sian Bonnell, who turned to photography to record her own sculptures; before adopting photography as her artistic medium, through which she creates “a Dada of the everyday.”
Kati Horna
1912-2000
Whilst names like, Kertész, Capa, Moholy-Nagy, Brassaï, and Munkácsi, are well documented in photographic history, their fellow Hungarian is undeservedly less so.
Yagazie Emezi, whose various series of work explore the body, mental health, and self-awareness – topics that all to often go unseen in many societies.
Shooting with Yagazie Emezi
Jennie Louise Van Der Zee Welcome
1885-1956
Known as Madame E. Toussaint, she was associated with the Harlem Renaissance, and made photographs and films that recognized African-American contributions to WWI
Sophie Ristelhueber, whose work focuses upon mankind’s impact on the landscape, through war and conflict, in images that she says are ‘true and false at the same time’.
SOPHIE RISTELHUEBER (2009)
Zaida Ben-Yusuf
1869-1933
A London born portrait photographer whose New York studio was one of the most fashionable on Fifth Avenue in the late 19th century.
Bettina Rheims. A portrait photographer whose work embraces the themes of gender and religion; and frequently fictional narratives as seen in her 1992 series, Chambre Close.
Bettina Rheims - photographer
Ida Kar
1908-1974
The first photographer to have a retrospective exhibition at a major London art gallery, when her work was shown at the Whitechapel gallery in 1960.
Mayotte Magnus, whose 1977 show @NPGLondon featured 90 portraits of eminent British women; and was the first photographic exhibition in the gallery’s history to focus exclusively on female achievement.
Mariana Yampolsky
1925-2002
Documented the daily life of Mexico’s indigenous communities, particularly of women, for more than half a century. (Mazahua School, 1984)
Mayumi Hosokura, whose experimental approach sees her rephotograph and manipulate her images, as she explores the very nature of photography.
Mayumi Hosokura - Jubilee
Marta Hoepffner
1912-2000
Studied painting/graphic design at the Bauhaus, before turning to experiments with photography and photograms; most of this work being destroyed in WWII.
Sheila Pree Bright, who explores the structures and narratives that inform representations of African American communities in her work.
‘Young Americans’ Street Series Evolution
Lotte Jacobi
1896-1990
Born into a family of photographers – her great-grandfather met and purchased a license from Daguerre in 1840 – she once said “I was born to photography.”
Elinor Carucci, who intimately explores her own life, and the relationships with her parents, her husband, and more recently, her children.
Closer - Pain - Crisis - Touch by Elinor Carucci
Germaine Krull
1879-1985
Her avant-garde approach to photography placed her firmly at the forefront of the Neue Optik.
Miyako Ishiuchi, who is often overshadowed by her male contemporaries, such as Shomei Tomatsu and Daido Moriyama; but no less powerful as she records material traces of the passage of time.
Ms. Miyako Ishiuchi
Běla Kolářová
1923-2010
In response to the statement “the whole world has been photographed,” turned to cameraless photography, which she felt held greater scope for experiment.
Karen Knorr, who uses different visual and textual strategies to address the politics of representation, as seen in various series.
Photographer Spotlight: Karen Knorr
Olive Edis
1876-1955
Became the first official female British War artist photographing the battlefields of France and Flanders in 1918-19.
Bettina von Zwehl, exploring the very nature and representation of the portrait, through multiple forms and series.
Bettina von Zwehl talks about the Portrait Commissions
Claire de Rouen
193?-2012
Her eponymous bookstore – situated above a sex shop on London’s Charing Cross Rd – became a Mecca for photobook lovers, where you were met with Claire’s charm and charisma, and pug Otis.
Shirin Neshat, whose work explores the notions of femininity, gender and society, in relation to the cultural and religious systems of Islam.
Shirin Neshat Montage
Evelyn Hofer
1922-2009
Evelyn Hofer’s work appears routed in the tradition of August Sander, and predates the colour work of William Eggleston, and continues to influence to this day.
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, who in 1986 began to address the predominately white male history of photography with the publication of Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers (1986).
Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe
Inge Morath
1923-2002
Joined Magnum as an editor at the invitation of Robert Capa and began taking photographs in 1951, becoming a full member of the agency in 1955.
Sheila Metzner, who was the first female art director hired by advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach; before turning to photography where she has developed a highly personal and distinct style.
The Dinner Party by Sheila Metzner for Grey
Doreathea Lange
1895-1965
Documentary photographer who held a deep empathy for her subjects, and whose work pioneered photography as a catalyst for social change.
Graciela Iturbide, whose work focuses on her native Mexico, and the sense of belonging and marginalization within contemporary culture.
ICP Graciela Iturbide
Madame Yevonde
1893-1975
Known for her portraits and early work with the Vivex colour process; she held one of the earliest exhibitions of colour photography in 1932.
Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, whose series based work explores how man-made structures interact with the landscape and how the two coexist.
Ursula Schulz-Dornburg – ‘I Want to Archive These Places for Later Generations’ | TateShots
Shima Ryū
1823-1900
An early pioneer of photography in Japan, her portrait of her husband Shima Kakoku (1864), is believed to be the earliest known photograph made by a Japanese woman.
Brigitte Lacombe, from her early beginnings in the darkroom of French Elle, she has established herself as one of the great portrait photographers of our time.
Neuehouse LA - Brigitte Lacombe’s Los Angeles
Ilse Bing
1899-1998
Known as the ‘Queen of the Leica’ for her early adoption of the small format camera, her self-portrait with Leica (Paris, 1931) reflects an era where women embraced modernity and independence.
Flor Garduña, highly influential Mexican photographer whose work encompasses still lifes, nudes, portraits, street scenes and the representation of indigenous cultures.
Lady Mary Rosse
1813-1885
Experimenting with photographic processes in late 1853, and is noted for her use of wax paper negatives.
LaToya Ruby Frazier, who seeks to build visual archives that address multiple strands, from industrialism and environmental justice, to social and family issues, and communal history.
LaToya Ruby Frazier’s “The Notion of Family”
Catherine Leroy
1944-2006
A photojournalist who covered the Vietnam war from 1966 to 1969; and further conflict in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon.
Maxine Walker, who explores, questions and challenges the nature of identity and racial stereotypes through an ongoing series of self-portraiture.
Alison Gernsheim
1911-1969
A collector and historian, who co-authored The History of Photography: from the camera obscura to the beginning of the modern era, 1955.
Natasha Caruana, an artist who’s work approaches the narratives of love, betrayal and fantasy; and the impact technology has upon relationships.
Natasha Caruana
Penny Tweedie
1940-2011
A photojournalist who covered conflicts around the world, from Bangladesh and Vietnam to Uganda and East Timor.
Dana Popa, a photojournalist who tackles social and human right issues through multiple bodies of work across the UK and Eastern Europe.
Dana Popa 01
Birgit Jürgenssen
1949-2003
A key figure of the international feminist avant-garde movement, her work is heavily autobiographical focusing on the female body and its transformation.
Ming Smith, an early member of the Kamoinge Workshop, and the first African-American female photographer whose work was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.
Visually Speaking: The Timeless Art of Kamoinge
Shirley Baker
1932-2014
Working in the humanist style of documentary photography, she is widely considered to be the only woman solely engaged in street photography in post-war Britain.
@CelineMarchbank, is a documentary and editorial photographer whose interest is in the stories of everyday life. Her first book, Tulip, is the highly emotional story of her mother’s last year of life.
A Day Of Chemo
Lola Álvarez Bravo
1903-1993
a photographer overshadowed by her husband, but who’s work with its remarkable range – including teaching and curating – deserves far greater critical attention.
@melinda_jgibson, an artist who explores the flux of photographic boundaries, and the contextual understanding of how images are received and understood.
The Photograph As Contemporary Art
Margaret Bourke-White
1904-1971
pioneering photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, who was Fortune magazine’s first photographer, and the first female war correspondent accredited to work in WWII combat zones.
@annafox61, who is amongst a small group of highly influential photographers who emerged in the 1980s, and redefined the British and European documentary genre.
How to Make a Schilt Book - Anna Fox
Hannah Wilke
1940-1993
who explored the themes of feminism, sexuality and femininity through photography, video and performance.
@AnaCasasBroda, known for multiple bodies of work, including Kinderwunsch a longterm project exploring the theme of motherhood, and in which her two young sons are active participants.
Kinderwunsch
Hilla Becher
1934–2015
who can be considered one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, inspiring a generation of image makers.
@TessaTraeger, whose work encompasses still life, food and portraiture; and is known for her long association with British Vogue, and her highly personal approach to image making.
Tessa Traeger & Mark Haworth - Booth Voices of the Vivarais Oklahoma Museum
Toni Frissell
1907-1988
Known for her fashion and photojournalism, she volunteered her services to the Red Cross, Women’s Army Corps and Eighth Army Air Force during WWII.
@nancyfordephoto, who works between editorial and documentary photography, and in her multiple personal projects explores the relationship and connection between humans and their environment.
Tish Murtha
1956-2013
@tishmurtha, who focused on the working class areas of the northeast of England and the reality of multiple social issues, many of which we continue to battle to this day.
Adele M. Reed, a photographer whose autobiographical work documents everyday life, such as her IG feed: that records her daily life as a young mother.
Nice Girls ft. Frigg
Ruth Bernhard
1905-2006
A student of Edward Weston, she was renowned for her nudes, with fellow f64 member Ansel Adams calling her “the greatest photographer of the nude.”
@LauraHynd, whose personal work often takes an autobiographical narrative, such as The Letting Go, where she relinquishes control of the camera to explore her emotions.
Laura Hynd - Lady into Hut
Jo Spence
1934-1992
One of the first artists to explore identity politics through role-play, and a key figure in the history of feminist photography.
@tessabunney, a documentary photographer who through multiple series explores the landscape, and the ways in which it is shaped by human activity.
Hand to Mouth
Lee Miller
1907-1977
One of only four female photographers accredited as official war correspondents with the US forces in WWII.
Susan Meiselas: from the Carnival Strippers – her first large scale project – to Nicaragua and beyond, she has firmly established herself as one of the great photojournalists of our time.
Susan Meiselas: Carnival Strippers
Maud Sulter
1960-2008
Maud Sulter whose distinct – often multilayered – portraits frequently reference historical and mythical subjects as she sought to reframe the representation of black women.
Terri Weifenbach, whose images feel familiar, yet in her use of a shallow depth of field or selective focusing, she shifts our understanding and reading of her images.
Terri Weifenbach
Imogen Cunningham
1883-1976
With a career spanning seven decades, she emerged from the Pictorialist movement to become one of the most significant artists of American modernism.
@janehiltonphoto, who over the past two decades has documented the cultural realities of the American West, from the modern cowboy to the Brothels of Nevada.
Jane Hilton - Dead Eagle Trail
Corrine Day
1962-2010
Corrine Day who took a documentary approach to fashion – that lacked the glamour so often associated with it – and instead depicted a harsh realism.
Mao Ishikawa, who documented the girls working in the bars of the racially segregated entertainment districts of her native Okinawa, frequented by US troops stationed in Japan, in the 1970s.
Mao Ishikawa - Red Flower: The Women of Okinawa
Diane Arbus
1923-1971
Diane Arbus who pushed the boundaries of social documentary portraiture, with the transgressive content and form of her images.
Susan Lipper, a long-form photographer who collaborates with her subjects in an approach that she terms “subjective documentary.”
ICP Lecture Series 2010: Susan Lipper
Fay Godwin
1931-2005
More than a poetic landscape photographer, her images increasingly held a political and environmental message.
@hellenvanmeene; whose carefully staged mise-en-scene portraits, explore the psychological and emotional tension of adolescence.
Ostlicht | Hellen van Meene
Lucia Moholy
1894-1989
A name synonymous with the Bauhaus; with her images of the architecture, products and masters, representing the influential art school to this day.
Liz Nielsen, an artist working with handmade negatives, to create vibrant abstract works that blur the line between photography and collage.
BENRIMON CONTEMPORARY - Liz Nielson
Gerda Taro
1910-1937
The first woman to photograph the heat of battle (and to die in action), her career was short; however the power of her images serve as her legacy.
@jometsonscott, whose five year project, The Grey Line, documents soldiers who have developed a moral objection to the war in Iraq.
Start Up Photo Talks 002 - Jo Metson Scott
Berenice Abbott
1898-1991
From her urban images that culminated in Changing New York (1939); securing the archive of Eugène Atget; or her largely overlooked scientific images.
Helen Sear; an artist who continually innovates with each new body of work, as she explores and questions the materiality of vision.
Helen Sear …the rest is smoke.
Lady Clementina Hawarden
1822-1865
Initially taking stereoscopic landscape photographs, she quickly turned to the portrait; producing 800 charismatic studies of her young family.
@AnnaAgostonArt, an artist whose ongoing large-scale study of flora, forms a typology of form that invites the viewer into a world of contemplation and reflection.
The Untitled Series
Lisette Model
1901-1983
A photographer whose unflinchingly frank eye, produced one of the most striking documents of everyday life, and helped shape post-war photography.
Carrie Mae Weems, an artist who subtly explores identity, race and class, through multiple series of work.
Carrie Mae Weems—Can an artist inspire social change?
Gisèle Freund
1908-2000
A photojournalist who joined the Magnum agency in 1947 – although since omitted from its history; and an early adopter of colour.
Lorna Simpson; an artist who examines, questions and challenges the theme of identity, culture and race through her conceptual works.
The Photographers Gallery
Florence Henri
1893-1982
All to often overlooked, her Avant-garde photography lead László Moholy-Nagy to write in 1928, “photographic practice enters a new phase …”
Rineke Dijkstra; a photographer whose work focuses upon the representation of youth and the transition to adulthood.
DE PONT Museum Presents : Rineke DIJKSTRA
Esther Bubley
1921–1998
Through the work she produced for Roy Stryker’s FSA/OWI and beyond, her images are marked with an unmistakable sensitivity and intimacy.
Collier Schorr; whose primary themes see her explore gender, identity, and it’s framing and representation.
Artists at the Institute: Collier Schorr
Louise Dahl-Wolf
1895–1989
A photographer who defined the image of the modern independent post-war woman through 86 covers for Harper’s Bazaar, and thousands of feature images.
Zanele Muholi; self-identifying as a visual activist, she documents the black LGBTI community of South Africa, with a commitment to redressing the injustices they face on a daily basis.
Zanele Muholi - Fragments of a New History
Helen Levitt
1913-2009
A master of the street photography genre, who was only the second woman to receive a Guggenheim fellowship (1959), and a pioneer in the use of colour film.
Rinko Kawauchi; a photographer whose luminous images capture the everyday – the often mundane – and reveal the hidden poetry of life.
Rinko Kawauchi : DREAMWALKING
Tina Modotti
1896-1942
Although her legacy is small, it is an intensely influential body of work – with a focus on social awareness, and the power of the camera as a political weapon.
Julie Cockburn; an artist reworking found photography – removing it from the past and representing it – and in doing so, challenging and questioning the ways we digest visual material.
Julie Cockburn: Yossi Milo Gallery
Gertrude Käsebier
1852-1934
An American noted for her portraits, and as a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement; she was a strong advocate for photography as a career for women.
Sarah Moon, a photographer whose distinct textural and poetic – almost ethereal – images are instantly recognisable, whilst hard to define.
The Photography of Sarah Moon
Anna Atkins
1799-1871
who in 1843 privately published, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book illustrated with photographic images.
Susan Derges, who explores the relationship between self and nature in her work, through direct interaction with the landscape.
Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography
Mary Ellen Mark
1940-2015
Her penetrating social documentary images and portraits, have left a lasting and rarely equalled legacy.
Kathy Ryan Magazine photo editor @nytimes . For three decades Ryan has headed the picture desk of the New York Times Magazine, during which time she has pushed the boundaries of editorial photography. @ryan_kathy
Aperture, Kathy Ryan: Office Romance
Constance Fox Talbot
1811-1880
Whilst only two images are known to survive, evidence suggests she was experimenting with photography as early as 1839, making her – possibly – the first woman to take a photograph.
Awoiska van der Molen. A photographer exploring the identity of place, through its emotional and physical qualities, and her own relationship with the landscape. Twitter: @Awoiska Instagram: @awoiska_vdm
The Photographers' Gallery Interviews Awoiska van der Molen
Francesca Woodman
1958-1981
One of the defining visual artists of her generation; Woodman explores the complexities of self, gender, and identity.
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. Her documentary approach, which David Alan Mellor described as “intimate embeddedness in the locality,” has resulted in a seminal body of work in and around Newcastle.
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen – 'You Always Reveal Yourself in the Pictures'
Julia Margaret Cameron
1815-1870
Whilst her artistic career was short, she was a photographer ahead of her time – and her portraits now stand as some of the greatest of the genre.
Curator, writer and educator Susan Bright. From her exhibitions to her books, such as: Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography (2017), she continually develops and promotes our understanding of the medium. @SusanKTBright
Museum of Contemporary Photography - Susan Bright
Claude Cahun
1894-1954
One of few women to actively participate in the surrealist movement, who was described by André Breton as “one of the most curious spirits of our time.
Dayanita Singh; an artist who explores the relationship and narrative of images, whilst expanding the form of what a book or exhibition is, in the decemination of her work.
Dayanita Singh Interview: Stealing in the Night
Lillian Bassman
1917-2012
As an art director she promoted the likes of Avedon, Frank, Faurer & Newman. As a fashion photographer she broke new ground with her visually striking aesthetic.
Jillian Edelstein Hon FRPS. From celebrity portraits to powerful visual essays – such as Truth & Lies: Stories of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission – Edelstein stands as one of the great photojournalists. @JillEdelstein
‘Here and There’ by Jillian Edelstein
Sophy Rickett; an artist who explores and challenges the concept of narrative and abstraction within the photographic image, through multiple bodies of work. @SophyRicket
Culture Now: Sophy Rickett and Darian Leader
Jane Bown HonFRPS
1925-2014
I had the pleasure of working with Jane Bown whilst art directing the Observer colour supplement in the late 1990s; and in both her portraits and documentary photographs, her quiet observation was always a revelation
Photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, who has shown commitment in her long-form work, that now stands as testimony against the Mafia.
Letizia Battaglia. Per pura passione
Fleur Olby who in her intimate studio studies of flora, to her various series exploring childhood memories and the landscape, has demonstrated a bold and singular artistic vision @fleurolby
Installation timelapse - Fleur Olby, 'Horsetail Equisetum’
