Historical Heroines
Women photographers active at some point between the late 18th Century and the mid-20th Century
Heroines Past
Research Resources Archive
Delve into our online archive to find out more about the photography pioneers of the past
In order to make space for the women photographers of today, we highlight the women who have been obscured over the years and celebrate the strides they made. Find out more in our online archive – researched, written and curated by our volunteers.
Legacy Heroines
Women photographers active at some point between the mid-20th Century and the present day.
As part of its mission, the organisation tracks down, preserves and celebrates archives that might have been forgotten or mislaid, which involves working with numerous estates, from Homai Vyarawalla, India’s first female photojournalist, to Hong Kong photographer Nancy Sheung.
How to buy an Eve Arnold image for only £30 . . . and other initiatives to champion female photographers, The Financial Times
Latest Posts
Ursula Pariser
Born in Berlin, Ursula Pariser studied in London at the Reimann School of Art and Design before embarking on an illustrious career as educator and photographer. Whilst head of photography at the Courtauld Institute of Art, she acted...
Alice Austen
Alice Austin (1866-1952) was one of the first women to work outside the photographic studio, documenting New York City as well as intimate relationships between Victorian women...
Annemarie Schwarzenbach
Recognized as a notable LGBTQ+ fashion icon and an accomplished twentieth-century author, Annemarie Schwarzenbach was also a prolific photographer....
Elisabeth Buchmeyer Lewis
Born in 1935, Elisabeth was a prolific photographer. By the time of her death in 2018, she had created a vast collection of images with immense social, political, and aesthetic value....
Dorothy Wilding
Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976) was the first woman to be appointed as the Official Royal Photographer...
Lady Mary Rosse
Mary Rosse also possessed a sense of community and a generosity of spirit. During the Irish famine in 1845, she provided jobs for local people at Birr Castle....
Caroline Taylor
In 2017, Lacy Scott and Knight, an independent and longstanding firm of auctioneers and property valuers, were tasked with carrying out the valuation of items discovered at Thorne Court, just outside of Bury St Edmunds....
Lady Caroline Emily Nevill
My name is Caroline Emily Nevill. I was born on 31st May 1829 as the eldest daughter of Wil-liam Nevill, the 4th Earl of Abergavenny, and Caroline Leeke....
Bessie Rayner Parkes
My name is Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. I am a mid-19th century feminist and women's rights activist. I also co-founded the English Woman's Journal in 1858 with my dear friend Bessie Rayner Parkes. Today, I thought of telling you all...
Bertha Wehnert-Beckmann
During my time, I witnessed Germany’s last emperor Wilhelm II outline a role for women, which was later adopted by the Nazis: Kirche, Küche, Kinder. This translates as ‘church, kitchen and children’ -- three words that seemed to sum up...
Virginia Oldoïni
Virginia Oldoïni (1837-1899) was an Italian photographer who rose to the upper echelons of Parisian society and was unabashedly her own muse....
6 Women who photographed post-war America for LIFE Magazine
LIFE Magazine offered women photographers the opportunity to take control of their careers with sustainable wages and assignments documenting America after World War 2....
Margaret Bourke-White
Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971), American photojournalist, war correspondent and Fortune and LIFE magazine photographer who covered events from the Great Depression, through WW2 to the Cold War...
Martha Holmes
Martha Holmes (1923-2006) was one of LIFE Magazine’s pioneering women photographers of the 1940s and 1950s....
Nina Leen
Nina Leen (1914-1995) was one of LIFE Magazine’s pioneering female photographers of the 1940s and 1950s...
Marie Hansen
Marie Hansen (1918 – 1969) was one of LIFE Magazine’s pioneering female photographers of the 1940s and 1950s....
10 of my favourite female Bauhaus-trained photographers
Explore 10 female photographers who studied at the Bauhaus’s campuses in Dessau and Weimar, before the schools were closed at the onset of the Second World War...
Marianne Brandt
Marianne Brandt (1893-1983) was a celebrated Bauhaus-trained industrial designer, photographer and pioneer of Modernist photomontage. She experimented with the array of imagery available in the new illustrated press to challenge gender...
Gertrud Arndt
Gertrud Arndt (1903 – 2000) was a German photographer and weaver trained at the Bauhaus between 1923 and 1927. She is remembered for her pioneering series of self-portraits ‘The Mask Portraits’ from around 1930....
Hou Bo
Chinese photojournalist Hou Bo (1924 – 2017) documented the rise of Mao Zedong from 1939 to 1968 in over 400 photographs as the official photographer of The Great Leader. She created most of the iconic images of Mao’s reign but fell...
Julia Diament Pirotte
Polish photojournalist Julia Diament Pirotte (1908 –2000) is known for her work in Marseille during the Second World War, when she documented the French Resistance and life under the occupation from 1940-1945....
Marta Hoepffner
Marta Hoepffner (1912–2000) was a German experimental artist and abstract photographer. She was a pioneer of photomontage and the photogram in the 1930s and the kinetic art movement in the 1960s....
Toni Frissell
Born into a wealthy New York banking family, legendary photographer Antoinette ‘Toni’ Frissell Bacon (1907 – 1988) was introduced to photography in her twenties by her filmmaker brother Varick....
Visiting Dimbola – the home of legendary photographer Julia Margaret Cameron
Photographer and volunteer writer Fanny Beckman crosses the Solent to learn more about one of the pioneering women in photography....
6 Pioneering Black Women Photographers You Should Know
During Black History Month, we are paying homage to the Black women photographers who have overcome racial and sexist oppression to leave their mark within the visual arts...
Ruby Washington
As the first African-American woman hired as a staff photographer for the New York Times, Ruby Washington (1952-2018) was a true pioneer....
Zofia Rydet
For Zofia Rydet (1911-1997), photography was the perfect medium to express all human stories; through her work, she felt that she was capturing the essence of what it meant to be human....
Evelyn Hofer
The German-born American artist Evelyn Hofer (1922-2009) is considered one of the foremost female photographers of the ‘New Objectivity’ style....
Discovering legendary photographer Lee Miller at Farleys House
Volunteer writer Fanny Beckman travels to the home of Lee Miller (1907-1977) to discover how one fateful photograph changed the trajectory of her life and career....
Emma Rayson Barton
Emma Barton (1872–1938) was an English Pictorialist portrait photographer active between 1899 and the end of WW1 and at the height of her fame she was the most published female photographer of her time....
Jane Bown CBE
In 1949 Jane Bown (1925–2014) began working for The Observer newspaper. It was a partnership that would last over 60 years and lead to her photographing the leading political, cultural and royal figures of the day....
Marion Post Wolcott
After studying under Trude Fleischmann in Vienna, Marion Post Wolcott (1910-1990) traveled back to America to document the rural south...
Thereza Rucker Story-Maskelyne
Coming from an intellectual Welsh family who made early strides in science and photography, Thereza Story-Maskelyne (née Dillwyn Llewelyn) (1834-1926) is a true pioneer...
Olive Edis
Mary Olive Edis (1876-1955) opened her first studio with sister in Norfolk, UK. She was one of the first women to accepted as a member of the RPS....
Alexandra Boulat
Alexandra Boulat (1962-2007) photographed wars from women's perspectives, paving the way for other women in photography to do the same....
Trude Fleischmann
Trude Fleischmann (1895 – 1990) was an Austrian-born American photographer, one of a group of young, confident, Jewish, female photographers opening their own studios in Vienna after World War I....
Historical Heroines: Viennese Interwar Photographers
In the first decades of the twentieth century, high-end portrait photography was dominated by women such as Anni Schulz (1897-1943) and Marianne Bergler (Blumberger) (1897-1980), Trude Neumann Geiringer (1890 – 1981) and Dora Horovitz...
Shima Ryū
Ryu Shima (1823-1900) took what is the earliest known photograph to be created by a Japanese woman in 1864, and it was a wet-plate of Kakoku, her husband....
Elizabeth Le Blond
The Irish-heiress turned mountaineering photographer, Elizabeth Le Blond (1860-1934) has not only been credited by being one of the first people to reach many European summits but also as one of the first female filmmakers....
Minna Keene
Often referred to as Canada’s first professional woman photographer, Minna was born in Germany in 1861....
Photographer Florence Henri featured in Women in Abstraction
Florence Henri among other Historical Heroines on display in 'Women in Abstraction', at the Centre Pompidou, Paris. On view until August 23, 2021...
Yva
One of the premier fashion and portrait photographers of the 20s and 30s in Germany, ‘Yva’ produced elegant fashion portraits, photomontages and advertising work in Berlin from 1925 until the Nazi’s closed her studio. She was killed in...
Anne Fischer
German photographer Anne Fischer (1914 - 1986) left Germany in 1937 to become a fine portrait photographer and to specialise in dance photography....
Elisabeth Meyer
Elisabeth Meyer (1899 – 1968) was an early Norwegian photojournalist of the 1920s and 30s who documented her daring trips to Iran and India, as well as the local Sami people of Finnmark in her native Norway....
Marie Høeg
A prominent member of the Norwegian feminist movement in Horton, Marie Høeg along with partner Bolette Berg, experimented with gender identity and performance....
Grace Robertson
Grace Robertson OBE (1930 – 2021) was a leading British photojournalist who highlighted the stories of ordinary women....
Helen Chadwick
A pioneer of photography and installation art, Helen Chadwick (1953-1996) was one of the first women to be nominated for the Turner Prize....
Fay Godwin
A pioneer of black and white photography, Fay Godwin (1931 - 2005) was renowned for her landscapes of the British coastline and countryside....
Lou Landauer
German photographer Lou Landauer, who was active during the 1930s - 1950s, is recognised today for her photograms of botanical subjects....
Hidden Histories: Claude Cahun
For Claude, exploring the limits of male & female identities was not merely a critique of societal gender norms, but rather a highly introspective endeavour...
Theatre of The City
The exhibition is the second public showcase of street photography by Vivian Maier from the Finnish Museum of Photography...
Maud Sulter
Maud Sulter was a contemporary fine artist, photographer, poet, educator and curator. Her work explored her Ghanaian heritage....
Olive Cotton
Olive Cotton was one of the most important 20th century Australian modernist photographers. Based in Cowra, her pioneering work spanned the 1930s and 40s...
Nancy Sheung
Chinese photographer Nancy Sheung was determined to break all the rules and conventions of her time, with unusual means to success....
Lisa Larsen
Legendary photographer Lisa Larsen was one of LIFE’s pioneering female photojournalists. Born in Germany, she moved to the US as a teenager...
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier is one of the most prolific and distinctive American photographers of the mid to late twentieth century...
Ruth Orkin
Photojournalist Ruth Orkin was voted one of the Top Ten Women Photographers by the Professional Photographers of America in 1959...
Ingeborg Strobl
Austrian visual artist and photographer who focused primarily on conceptual art as a form of narrative expression....
Sibylle Bergemann
Sibylle Bergemann has been hailed as ‘one of the most important German photographers of the last decades’...
Fanny Foster
Fanny Foster was a British photographer hired to document the 1929-1931 archaeological excavation at the Vinča-Belo Brdo tell in modern-day Serbia...
Jo Spence
Over her long career, Jo Spence moved from capturing moments of domestic happiness in commercial photography to works that challenged capitalism and sexism,before focusing on questions of illness and healing as she battled with breast...
Christina Broom
Britain’s pioneering female press photographer, Christina Broom, took up photography only in her 40s after her husband became unable to work....
Madame d’Ora
The most famous of the Viennese pre-war photographers was Dora Kallmus, otherwise known as Madame d’Ora...
Mariana Yampolsky
Mariana Yampolsky is one of Mexico’s most influential and talented photographers. She created art is versatile and multifaceted...
Betti Mautner
Betti Mautner was born in Vienna in 1892 when the role and significance of photography was being re-evaluated, being seen as an art form...
Gisele Wulfsohn
Gisele Wulfsohn's work was celebrated for highlighting poverty, HIV/AIDS and the apartheid in South Africa....
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....
Ida Kar
Ida Kar was a woman of many origins who became most well-known for her portraits of London artistic circles, becoming the ‘Bohemian Photographer’....
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....
Isabel Agnes Cowper (Mrs Cowper)
Possibly the South Kensington Museum’s (V & A) first female Official Museum Photographer....
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....
Homai Vyarawalla
Not only was Homai Vyarawalla India’s first female photojournalist but her career documented the overthrow of British colonial rule...
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....
London By Night
Exploring Tish Murtha’s lesser known collection London by Night (1983)....
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....
Cinderella
Reproduction of Jo Spence's BA thesis. Written in 1982, this landmark thesis aimed to untangle interconnected gender and class oppressions in historic fairy tales....
Esther Bubley
From admiring Life magazine to shooting the cover, Esther Bubley was a prolific freelance photographer during the golden age of American documentary photography. Becoming one of the first women to be able to financially support herself...
Karimeh Abbud
Palestinian photographer, born in Bethlehem, later moved to Jerusalem, and died in Nazareth.She was unknown to historians or photographers, until 2007....
Berenice Abbott
Best known for photographing the changing face of New York in the 1930s....
Diane Arbus
Still influencing contemporary photography, nearly fifty years after her death....
Vera Jackson
American photographer Vera Jackson (1912-1999) was noted for her evocative narrative content within her work....
Mary Dillwyn
Pioneering photographer who worked during the 1840s and 1850s, is widely considered to be the earliest female photographer in Wales....
Eve Arnold
Photographer who rebelled against the homogeneous narrative with which women were typically represented in the public eye....
Gerda Taro
Gerda Taro has both the distinction of being one of the first female war photographers, and the first to die in the line of work as in 1937....
Polixeni Papapetrou
Polixeni Papapetrou (1960-2018) was an Australian photographer most recognized for her work on historical and contemporary culture....
Hannah Höch
From being the only woman associated with the Berlin Dada movement to evolving her craft for more than half a decade, Hannah Höch created photomontages that commented on politics, gender roles and popular culture....
Věra Chytilová
Acclaimed Czech filmmaker,Věra Chytilová, known for her surrealist approach to cinema....
Lisette Model
Shaped post-War American photography even while under the watchful eye of the FBI...
Ylla
Camilla Koffler was a pioneer of animal photography. She changed her name to Ylla after finding out that Camilla in Serbian means ‘camel’....
Geta Brătescu
Exploring the reality of living under a totalitarian regime in Communist Romania...
Amelia Elizabeth Guppy
Amelia Elizabeth Guppy was a pioneering photographer often remembered for her adventurous spirit and passion for studying orchids....
Lucia Moholy
Lucia Moholy - now gaining recognition for her contribution to the photography of the Bauhaus...
Norah Lyle-Smyth
Norah documented the early years of British suffrage and the ground-breaking work of socialist Sylvia Pankhurst in London’s East End....
Lives behind the lens
Women refugee photographers are put back in the frame in Four Corners' exhibition. Kirtey Verma goes behind the scenes of the recently reopened Another Eye with Four Corners’ Carla Mitchell and co-curator Katy Barron...
Tina Modotti
With her camera, Tina Modotti presents a distinctive vision of 1920s Mexico. As a Hollywood actress turned Comintern agent, Modotti used photography as an artistic and political outlet....
Lee Miller Profile
From model and muse to ground-breaking modern artist, Lee Miller’s biography at times overwhelms her aesthetic achievement....
Kati Horna
Compassionate and engaged, Mexican photojournalist Kati Horna introduced a personal and feminine approach to reportage photography...
Hansel Mieth
Hansel Mieth was a German-born photojournalist, most notable for capturing the dire conditions of working-class Americans in the 1930s and 1940s...
Germaine Krull
Germaine Krull was the groundbreaking photographer who influential surrealist Man Ray named his artistic equal...
Corinne Day
Transitioning from fashion model to fashion photographer, Corinne Day proves that the only rule for success is to remain true to your vision...
Constance Stuart Larrabee
Constance Stuart Larrabee was remarkable on many levels, from owning her own photography studio to photographing from war zones...
Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark was a highly esteemed and accredited photographer with a specific interest in capturing 1960s counterculture...
Lola Álvarez Bravo
As one of the first successful Mexican women photographers, Lola Álvarez Bravo was celebrated in her nation for her works...
Gertrude Käsebier
For legendary photographer Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934), photography was a means to escape an unhappy marriage and become financially independent....
Franki Raffles
Edinburgh-based Franki Raffles (1955 - 1994) was a social documentarian and feminist photographer who died tragically young....
Lillian Bassman
Lillian Bassman’s (1917-2012) fashion photography appeared on the pages of Harper's Bazaar from the 1940's to the 1960's. Her self-taught, experimental and dreamlike approach brought an elegance to fashion photography and elevated it...
Hilla Wobeser Becher
Pioneers of industrial architecture photography, Hilla Becher (1931 - 2015) with partner Bernd, were known for their black and white typology photography....
Ellen Auerbach
One half of ringl+pit, Jewish photographer Ellen Auerbach (1906-2004) created surreal images and used photography as a means of independence....
Khadija Saye
Known as Ya-Haddy Sisi Saye, Khadija was a Gambian-British photographer, celebrated for her extraordinary photographs during her short life, which ended, at the age of 24, in the Grenfell fire of 2017....
Lotte Jacobi
Coming from a long line of photographers, German-born Lotte Jacobi (1896-1990) was known for her intimate, dramatic and often experimental portraits in the ‘New Vision’ style of the late 1920s and 30s. After fleeing Hitler’s Germany,...
Ilse Bing
Ilse Bing (1899–1998) was a German-born inter-war photographer who worked in photojournalism and portraiture in Paris and New York. She worked in the modernist style and innovated using solarisation and night photography. Her work was...
Helen Levitt
One of America’s foremost street photographers, Helen Levitt captured the energy of the streets of Spanish Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx through her candid, quirkily framed shots of children at play....
Edith Glogau
Edith Glogau (1898 – 1970) was a student of Madame D’Ora who opened her own Atelier Glogau in Vienna in 1925 when Madame D’Ora went to Paris....
Friedl Dicker-Brandeis
The Bauhaus-trained Austrian designer and artist who was killed in the Holocaust has recently become better known for her painting and art therapy than photography. But in the early 30’s she produced powerful anti-fascist photomontages...
Martine Franck
Martine Franck was a Belgian-born/British documentary and portrait photographer who was a member of Magnum Photos for over 32 years...
Harriet Tytler
A true pioneer of photographic practices in the 1800s, she created over 300 photographs in collaboration with her husband....
Gisèle Freund
From assignments for Life and Time Magazine, Gisèle Freund is most well-known for her candid portraits of literary greats and artists...
Florence Henri
Florence Henri did not just live through arguably the most exciting period in the history of art – she was at its very frontier...
Eva Besnyö
After being gifted a Kodak Brownie, Eva Besnyö went on to open her own photography studio where she continually adapted her style...
Dora Maar
Dora Maar (1907 – 1997) was an acclaimed painter, poet and photographer who was an integral figure in the Surrealist art movement...
E. Lennie
E. Lennie is the acronym used by Eliza Lennie (1818 – unknown) who was a successful 19th century business owner and optician in Edinburgh, Scotland...
Penny Tweedie
British photojournalist Penelope Anne (Penny) Tweedie (1940-2011) covered the major political and humanitarian issues of the 60s and 70s with fearless and compassionate images....
Cui Xiuwen
Cui Xiuwen (1967 – 2018) was one of China’s leading contemporary artists. Her work looks at femininity, Chinese iconography and motherhood....
Heroines Past
Tour our A-Z of Heroines past, as our archives grow we hope to provide a detailed photographer’s profile for each name. Fancy writing a bio that’s missing? Or know a name that should be on the list? Email us at hello@hundredheroines.org
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 Hughes (1857 – 1939)
- Alice Schalek (1874 – 1956)
- Alison Gernsheim (1911 – 1969)
- Amelia Elizabeth Guppy (1808 – 1886)
- Amélie Galup (1856 – 1943)
- 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 – 1943)
- Annie Blake (1848 – 1928)
- Annmarie Minne Renée Schwarzenbach (1908 – 1942)
- Anno Wilms (1935 – 2016)
- Arlene Gottfried (1950 – 2017)
- Aubrey Le Blond, Mrs (1860-1934)
- Augusta Mostyn/Henrietta Augusta Nevill , Lady (1830 – 1912)
B
- Barbara Ker-Seymer (1905 – 1993)
- Barbara Morgan (1900-1992)
- 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)
- Charlotte Perriand (1903 – 1999)
- Christina Broom (1862 – 1939)
- Claire Aho (1925 – 2015)
- 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)
- Cui Xiuwen (1970 – 2018)
D
- Daisy Edis (1888 – 1964)
- Diane Arbus (1923 – 1971)
- Dickey Chapelle (1918 – 1965)
- Dora Horovitz (1897 – 1979)
- Dora Kallmus/Madame d’Ora (1881-1963)
- Dora Maar (1907 – 1997)
- Doreathea Lange (1895 – 1965)
- Dorothy Frances Edith Wilding (1893 – 1976)
E
- E Lennie (1818 – Unknown)
- E Toussaint Welcome, Madame (1885 – 1956)
- Edith Barakovitch (1896 – 1940)
- Edith Glogau (1898 – 1970)
- Edith Tudor Hart (1908 – 1973)
- Eiko Yamazawa (1899 -1995)
- Elisabeth Buchmeyer Lewis (1935 – 2018)
- Elisabeth Hase (1905 – 1991)
- Elisabeth Meyer (1899-1968)
- Elise Forrest Harleston (1891 – 1970)
- Elizabeth Anne Finn née McCaul (1825 – 1921)
- Elizabeth Eastlake, Lady (1809 – 1893)
- Elizabeth Fulhame (fl. 1794)
- Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Le Blond/Hawkins-Whitshed (1860 – 1934)
- Elizabeth Louisa How (1821 – 1893)
- Elizabeth Stockdale Wilkinson (1799 – 1871)
- Elizabeth Vignoles (1813 – 1880)
- Elizabeth Withington née Kirby (1825 – 1877)
- Ella Maillart (1903 – 1997)
- Ellen Auerbach (1906 – 2004)
- Elly Niebuhr (1914 – 2013
- Else Ernestine Neuländer-Simon/Yva (1900 – 1944)
- Emily Anne Payne-Frankland,Lady (1821 – 1913)
- Emma Frances Johnston (1834 – 1905)
- Emma Jane Gay (1830 – 1919)
- Emma Rayson Barton (1872 – 1938)
- Emma Thomasina Llewellyn née Talbot (1808 – 1881)
- Emmi Fock (1898 – 1983)
- Emmy Andriesse (1914 – 1953)
- 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
- Fanny Foster/Georgiana Fanny Julia Foster (1891-1975)
- Fay Godwin (1931 – 2005)
- Florence Henri (1893 – 1982)
- Florestine Perrault Collins (1895 – 1988)
- Frances Anna Georgiana Kinnaird née Ponsonby, Lady (1817 – 1910)
- Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864 – 1952)
- 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 – 1994)
- Franziska Möllinger (1817 – 1880)
- Friedl Dicker (1911 – 1944)
* dates not verified
G
- Galina Sanko (1904 – 1981)
- Georgiana Fanny Julia Foster/Fanny Foster (1891-1975)
- Gerda Taro (1910 – 1937)
- Germaine Krull (1879 – 1985)
- Gerti Deutsch (1908 – 1972)
- Gertrud Arndt (1903 – 2000)
- Gertrude Käsebier (1852 – 1934)
- Geta Brătescu (1926 – 2018)
- Gisèle Freund (1908 – 2000)
- Gisèle Wulfsohn (1957 – 2011)
- Grace Robertson (1930 – 2021)
- Grete Kolliner (1892 – 1933)
- Grete Stern (1904 – 1999)
H
- Hanna Maynard (1834 – 1918)
- Hannah Höch (1889 – 1978)
- Hannah Wilke (1940-1993)
- Hansel Mieth (1909 – 1998)
- Harriet Ann Tucker (1808 – 1875)
- Harriet V S Thorne (1843 – 1926)
- Harriet Tytler (1828 – 1907)
- Hazel Larsen Arche (1921 – 2001)
- Helena Almeida (1934 – 2018)
- Helen Chadwick (1953 – 1996)
- Helen Gee (1919 – 2004)
- Helen Levitt (1913 – 2009)
- Helen Messinger Murdoch (1862 – 1956)
- Henrietta Augusta Nevill , Lady/Augusta Mostyn (1830 – 1912)
- Hilde Hubbuch, Hilda Isay (1905 – 1971)
- Hilla Becher (1934 – 2015)
- Hilja Raviniemi (1915 – 1973)
- Homai Vyarawalla (1913 – 2012)
- Hou Bo (1924 – 2017)
I
- Ida Kar (1908 – 1974)
- Ilsa Stern (1912 – 1970)
- Ilse Bing (1899 – 1998)
- Imogen Cunningham (1883 – 1976)
- Inge Breder (1855 – 1933)
- Inge Morath (1923 – 2002)
- Ingeborg Strobl (1949 – 2017)
- Ira Wright Martin (1886 – 1960)
- Irena Blühová (1904 – 1991)
- Isabel Agnes Cowper (1826 – 1911)
J
- Jan Groover (1943 – 2012)
- Jane Bown (1925 – 2014)
- Jane Martha St. John (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)
- Joan Leigh Fermor (1912-2003)
- Judit Kárász (1912 – 1977)
- Julia Margaret Cameron (1815 – 1870)
- Julia Pirotte (1908 – 2000)
- Julia Shannon (1812 – 1852)
- Justine Henrietta Ross née Macrae (1813 – 1894)
K
- Karimeh Abbud (1893 – 1940)
- Käthe Buchler (1876 – 1930)
- Kati Horna (1912 – 2000)
- Katt Both (1905 – 1985)
- 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)
- Letizia Battaglia (1935 – 2022)
- 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)
- Lizzie Le Blond/Elizabeth Le Blond (1860-1934)
- Lola Álvarez Bravo (1903 – 1993)
- Lora Webb Nichols (1883 – 1962)
- Lotte Hendrich-Hassman (1932 – 2007)
- Lotte Jacobi (1896 – 1990)
- Lotte Stam-Beese (1903 – 1988)
- Lou Landauer (1897 – 1991)
- 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)
- Margaret Watkins (1884 – 1969)
- Margarethe Gross (1902 – 1985)
- Margarita “Rita” Weir Martin (1875 – 1958)
- Maria Chambefort (1818 – 1875)
- Mariana Yampolsky (1925 – 2002)
- Marianne Bergler (1897 – 1980)
- Marianne Brandt (1893-1983)
- Marie Cosindas (1923 – 2017)
- Marie Hansen (1918 – 1969)
- Marie Høeg (1866 – 1949)
- Marion Palfi (1907 – 1978)
- Marion Post Wolcott (1910 – 1990)
- Marta Astfalck-Vietz (1901 – 1993)
- 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)
- Minna Keene (1861 – 1943)
N
- Nadja Massün (1963 – 2022)
- 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
- Pamela Chandler (1928 – 1993)
- 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
- Reva Brooks (1913 – 2001)
- Rita (Margarita) Weir Martin (1875 – 1958)
- Rollie McKenna (1918 – 2003)
- Rosa Jenik (1853 – 1913)
- Rose Mandel (1910 – 2002)
- Ruby Washington (1952 – 2018)
- Ruth Bernhard (1905 – 2006)
- Ruth Orkin (1921 – 1985)
S
- Sarah Angeline Acland (1849 – 1930)
- Sarah Anne Bright (1793 – 1866)
- 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
- Tee Corinne (1943 – 2006)
- 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
Ursula Pariser (1917 – 2010)
V
- Vivian Maier (1926 – 2009)
- Vera Chytilova (1929 – 2014)
- Vera Jackson (1912 – 1999)
- Virginia Oldoini (1837 – 1899)
W
- Winifred Casson (1908 – 1969)
- Winifred Hall Allen (Active 1930s)
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)
