From Agnès to Ylla, explore the archive of Legacy Heroines and learn about the rich lives and careers of pioneering women photographers. As we continue our mission, our online archives will continue grow.
Researched, written and curated by our volunteers. If you would like to contribute to this valuable resource, sign up to volunteer today.
Olive Cotton was one of the most important 20th century Australian modernist photographers. Based in Cowra, her pioneering work spanned the 1930s and 40s...
An art patron and collector of early photography, Pauline Jermyn Trevelyan (1816-1866) started her own photographic work creating sketches using a camera lucida while travelling Europe with her husband, an aristocrat geologist and botanist....
Pearl Freeman was a portrait photographer, active from 1931 - 1954. Working in London, she was a contemporary of Dorothy Wilding and Yevonde....
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....
Polixeni Papapetrou (1960-2018) was an Australian photographer most recognized for her work on historical and contemporary culture....
The work of Rose Mandel shows a variety of dreamlike, symbolistic and abstract expressionistic images, charged with subtle meanings...
As the first African-American woman hired as a staff photographer for the New York Times, Ruby Washington (1952-2018) was a true pioneer....
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....
Ruth Harriet Louise was the first woman to run the MGM portrait studio....
Photojournalist Ruth Orkin was voted one of the Top Ten Women Photographers by the Professional Photographers of America in 1959...
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