These are active “Missing Persona” case files and therefore the notes, text and imagery are incomplete. If you can find more information on any of these case files then please let us know!
A new exciting archive initiative
The Missing Persona project is a new cornerstone initiative designed to help rectify historical gender bias in the arts. For over a century, the creative contributions of women in photography have been systemically obscured, with many artists being relegated to the status of a “muse,” “assistant,” or simply “the wife of” a more famous male counterpart.
This project hopes to empower a new generation of Digital Detectives to use modern investigative journalism and digital forensics to uncover these “missing” identities* and restore their rightful place in history. The women are drawn from our extensive collection of magazine tear sheets of portraits by women photographers.
The Core Philosophy: “From Muse to Maker”
- The Mission: To find the woman hidden in the “white space” of male-centric biographies.
- The Goal: To produce multimedia profiles (articles, photo essays, short films) where the the women are the headlines, not the footnote
- Theme: Investigative Journalism & Historical Reclamation
* We know that some of the sitters were very young when they appeared in these magazines, and that their achievements may have been later in their lives. Nonetheless, the exercise still highlights how women were framed by the men in their lives.
Join our detective team!
In the museum: Ask one of the team to show you the cold cases
Active Case Files
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Become a Digital Detective!

