Christina Broom
Britain’s pioneering female press photographer, Christina Broom, took up photography only in her 40s after her husband became unable to work....
Ann Cooke
Ann Cooke is credited as being the first female photographer in Britain to open a professional photographic portrait studio....
Anna Atkins
Anna Atkins was the first person to create a book made entirely from photographic images and is widely acclaimed for her use of British algae cyanotypes....
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was able to run a successful portrait studio in San Francisco during the 1920s during the Great Depression....
Laure Albin-Guillot
Born Laure Meffredy in Paris, photographer Laure Albin-Guillot first opened a portrait studio at her home in Rue du Ranelagh in the 1920s....
Laura Gilpin
Laura Gilpin spent her photography career documenting the Indigenous tribes of the United States, particularly the Navajo and Pueblo tribes....
Maud Sulter
Maud Sulter was a contemporary fine artist, photographer, poet, educator and curator. Her work explored her Ghanaian heritage....
Isabel Agnes Cowper (Mrs Cowper)
Possibly the South Kensington Museum’s (V & A) first female Official Museum Photographer....
Jane Louise Van Der Zee Toussaint Welcome
Jane 'Jennie' Louise Van Der Zee toussaint Welcome was one of the only Black Women filmmakers during the silent movie era....
Inge Morath
Austrian photographer Inge Morath left Nazi Germany to America to become an editor and then as assistant to Henry Cartier-Bresson....
Ruth Bernhard
German photographer Ruth Bernhard studied at the Berlin Academy of Art. In 1927, she relocated to New York to begin a career in commercial photography....
Edith Barakovich
Serbian-born photographer whose work explored, and was influenced by, Vienna, the heart of the Austrian Empire and a prominent place within the world of art and fashion....
Alphabetical List
A
- Aase Goldsmith (1942 – 2015)
- Abigail Heyman (1942 – 2013)
- Agnes Varda (1928 – 2019)
- Alexandra Boulat (1962 – 2007)
- Alice Austin (1866 – 1952)
- Alice Guy Blaché (1873 – 1968)
- Alice Schalek (1874 – 1956)
- Alison Gernsheim (1911 – 1969)
- Amelia Elizabeth Guppy (1808 – 1886)
- Ana Mendieta (1948 – 1985)
- Anja Niedringhaus (1965 – 2014)
- Ann Cooke (1796 – 1870)
- Anna Atkins (1799 – 1871)
- Anne Brigman (1869 – 1950)
- Anne Fischer (1915 – 1986)
- Anni Schulz (1897 – N/K)
- Annie Blake (1848 – 1928)
- Anno Wilms (1935 – 2016)
- Arlene Gottfried (1950 – 2017)
B
- Barbara Pflaum (1912 – 2002)
- Beatrice Freyberger (1901 – N/K)
- Běla Kolářová (1923 – 2010)
- Berenice Abbott (1898 – 1991)
- Bertha Beckmann (1815 – 1901)
- Bessie Raynor Parkes (1829 – 1925)
- Betti Mautner (1892 – 1988)
- Birgit Jürgenssen (1949 – 2003)
- Blanche Henrietta Pechell née Shelley (1841 – 1898)
- Bobbi Baker Burrows (1945 – 2018)
C
- Camilla Koffler/Ylla (1911 – 1955)
- Carolee Schneemann (1939 – 2019)
- Caroline Emily Nevill, Lady (1829 – 1887)
- Caroline Margaret Kerrison, Lady (1819 – 1895)
- Caroline Taylor (1810 – 1876)
- Catherine Leroy (1944 – 2006)
- Catherine Verschoyle (1800 – 1882)
- Cecilia Glaisher (1828 – 1892)
- Christina Broom (1862 – 1939)
- Claude Cahun (1894 – 1954)
- Clementina Hawarden, Lady (1822 – 1865)
- Compton Collier (1899 – 19770
- Constance Fox Talbot (1811 – 1880)
- Consuelo Kanaga (1894 – 1978)
- Corinne Day (1962 – 2010)
- Constance Stuart Larrabee (1914 – 2000)
D
- Diane Arbus (1923 – 1971)
- Dickey Chapelle (1918 – 1965)
- Dora Horovitz (1897 – 1979)
- Dora Kallmus/Madame D’Ora (1881-1963)
- Doreathea Lange (1895 – 1965)
- Dorothy Frances Edith Wilding (1893 – 1976)
E
- E Lennie (1840 – 1971)
- E Toussaint Welcome, Madame (1885 – 1956)
- Edith Barakovitch (1896 – 1940)
- Edith Glogau (1898 – 1970)
- Edith Tudor Hart (1908 – 1973)
- Elizabeth Anne Finn née McCaul (1825 – 1921)
- Elizabeth Eastlake, Lady (1809 – 1893)
- Elizabeth Fulhame (fl. 1794)
- Elizabeth Louisa How (1821 – 1893)
- Elizabeth Stockdale Wilkinson (1799 – 1871)
- Elizabeth Vignoles (1813 – 1880)
- Elizabeth Withington née Kirby (1825 – 1877)
- Elly Niebuhr (1914 – 2013
- Else Ernestine Neuländer-Simon/Yva (1900 – 1944)
- Emily Anne Payne-Frankland,Lady (1821 – 1913)
- Emma Barton (1872 – 1938)
- Emma Frances Johnston (1834 – 1905)
- Emma Thomasina Llewellyn née Talbot (1808 – 1881)
- Emmy Bernatzik (1904 – 1977)
- Erika Hubatschek (1917 – 2010)
- Esther Bubley (1921 – 1998)
- Eugenie Goldstern (1893 – 1942)
- Eva Besnyö (1910 – 2003)
- Eve Arnold (1912 – 2012)
- Evelyn Hofer (1922 – 2009)
F
- Fay Godwin (1931 – 2005)
- Florence Henri (1893 – 1982)
- Florestine Perrault Collins (1895 – 1988)
- Frances Anna Georgiana Kinnaird née Ponsonby, Lady (1817 – 1910)
- Frances Elizabeth Bree* (1795 – 1906)
- Frances Jocelyn, Lady (1820 – 1880)
- Frances Monteith (1805 – 1898)
- Frances Sally Day (1816 – 1892)
- Francesca Woodman (1958 – 1981)
- Franki Raffles (1955 – 1995)
- Franziska Möllinger (1817 – 1880)
- Friedl Dicker (1911 – 1944)
* dates not verified
G
- Galina Sanko (1904 – 1981)
- Gerda Taro (1910 – 1937)
- Germaine Krull (1879 – 1985)
- Gerti Deutsch (1908 – 1972)
- Gertrude Käsebier (1852 – 1934)
- Geta Brătescu (1926 – 2018)
- Gisèle Freund (1908 – 2000)
- Gisèle Wulfsohn (1957 – 2011)
- Grete Kolliner (1892 – 1933)
H
- Hanna Maynard (1834 – 1918)
- Hannah Höch (1889 – 1978)
- Hannah Wilke (1940-1993)
- Hansel Mieth (1909 – 1998)
- Harriet Ann Tucker (1808 – 1875)
- Harriet Tytler (1828 – 1907)
- Hazel Larsen Arche (1921 – 2001)
- Helen Chadwick (1953 – 1996)
- Helen Gee (1919 – 2004)
- Helen Levitt (1913 – 2009)
- Henrietta Augusta Nevill , Lady (1830 – 1912)
- Hilla Becher (1934 – 2015)
- Homai Vyarawalla (1913 – 2012)
I
- Ida Kar (1908 – 1974)
- Ilsa Stern (1912 – 1970)
- Ilse Bing (1899 – 1998)
- Imogen Cunningham (1883 – 1976)
- Inge Morath (1923 – 2002)
- Ingeborg Strobl (1949 – 2017)
- Ira Wright Martin (1886 – 1960)
- Isabel Agnes Cowper (1826 – 1911)
J
- Jan Groover (1943 – 2012)
- Jane Bown (1925 – 2014)
- Jane Martha (1801 – 1882)
- Jane Wigley (1820 – 1883)
- Jennie Louise Van Der Zee/Madame E Toussaint Welcome (1885 – 1956)
- Jessica Piazzi Smyth (1815 – 1896)
- Jessie Fergus (1794 – 1863)
- Jessie Mann (1805 – 1867)
- Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870 – 1942)
- Jo Spence (1934 – 1992)
- Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 – 1870)
- Julia Pirotte (1907 – 2000)
- Julia Shannon (1812 – 1852)
- Justine Henrietta Ross née Macrae (1813 – 1894)
K
- Karimeh Abbud (1893 – 1940)
- Kati Horna (1912 – 2000)
- Khadija Saye (1992 – 2017)
L
- Lallie Charles (1869 – 1919)
- Laura Aguilar (1959 – 2018)
- Laura Gilpin (1891 – 1979)
- Laure Albin-Guillot (1879 -1962)
- Lee Miller (1907 – 1977)
- Lena Connell (1875 – 1949)
- Lilian Maria Fayer (1917 – 2014)
- Lillian Bassman (1917 – 2012)
- Linda McCartney (1941 – 1998)
- Lisa Larsen (1925 – 1959)
- Lisalotte Grschebina (1908 – 1994)
- Lisette Model (1901 – 1983)
- Lola Álvarez Bravo (1903 – 1993)
- Lora Webb Nichols (1883 – 1962)
- Lotte Hendrich-Hassman (1932 – 2007)
- Lotte Jacobi (1896 – 1990)
- Louise Dahl-Wolf (1895 – 1989)
- Lucia Moholy/Schulz (1894 – 1989)
M
- Madame d’Ora/Dora Kallmus (1881 – 1963)
- Madame E Toussaint Welcome/Jennie Louise Van Der Zee (1885 – 1956)
- Madame Yevonde/Yevonde Middleton (1893 – 1975)
- Margaret Bourke-White (1904 – 1971)
- Margaret Dreghorn Baillie (1821 – 1870)
- Margaret Harker (1920 – 2013)
- Margaret J Newton (fl. 1849)
- Margarethe Gross (1902 – 1985)
- Margarita “Rita” Weir Martin (1875 – 1958)
- Maria Chambefort (1818 – 1875)
- Mariana Yampolsky (1925 – 2002)
- Marianne Bergler (1897 – 1980)
- Marie Cosindas (1923 – 2017)
- Marie Hansen (1918 – 1969)
- Marion Palfi (1907 – 1978)
- Marion Post Wolcott (1910 – 1990)
- Marta Hoepffner (1912 – 2000)
- Martha Holmes (1923 – 2006)
- Martine Franck (1938 – 2012)
- Mary Ann Robb (1829 – 1912)
- Mary Dillwyn (1816 – 1906)
- Mary Ellen Mark (1940 – 2015)
- Mary Emma Lynn (1813 – 1903)
- Mary Jane Matheson née Percival, Lady (1821 – 1896)
- Mary Rosse, Lady (1813 – 1885)
- Maud Sulter (1960 – 2008)
N
- Nancy Newhall (1908 – 1974)
- Nancy Sheung (1914 – 1979)
- Nina Leen (1909 – 1995)
- Norah Lyle-Smyth (1874 – 1963)
O
- Olive Cotton ( 1911 – 2003)
- Olive Edis (1876 – 1955)
- Ottilia Reizman (1914 – 1986)
P
- Pauline Trevelyan, Lady (1816 – 1866)
- Penny Tweedie (1940 – 2011)
- Pepa Feldscharek (1899 – 1962)
- Polixeni Papapetrou (1960 – 2018)
Q
Why not be the first to nominate a historical or legacy Heroine whose name begins with Q?
R
- Rita (Margarita) Weir Martin (1875 – 1958)
- Rosa Jenik (1853 – 1913)
- Ruby Washington (1952 – 2018)
- Ruth Bernhard (1905 – 2006)
- Ruth Orkin (1921 – 1985)
S
- Sarah Holcomb (early 19th C.)
- Sarah Louise Judd (1802 – 1886)
- Shima Ryū (1823 – 1900)
- Shirley Baker (1932 – 2014)
- Susan Eliza Evans née Gisborne (1834 – 1891)
- Sibylle Bergemann (1941 – 2010)
T
- Thereza Story-Maskelyne (1834 – 1926)
- Tina Modotti (1896 – 1942)
- Tish Murtha (1956 – 2013)
- Toni Frissell (1907 – 1988)
- Trude Fleischmann (1895 – 1990)
- Trude Geiringer (1890 – 1981)
U
Why not be the first to nominate a historical or legacy Heroine whose name begins with U?
V
- Vivian Maier (1926 – 2009)
- Vera Chytilova (1929 – 2014)
- Vera Jackson (1912 – 1999)
W
- Winifred Casson (1908 – 1969)
XYZ
- Yevonde Middleton/Madame Yevonde (1895 – 1975)
- Ylla/Camilla Koffler (1911 – 1955)
- Yva/Else Ernestine Neuländer-Simon (1900 – 1944)
- Zaida Ben-Yusuf (1869 -1933)
- Zofia Rydet (1911 – 1997)
Historical Heroines
Active at some point between the late 18th Century
and the mid-20th Century
In 2019, we asked the public to choose their top Hundred from this list. The results can be found here