People who regularly read my musing know that I have a passion for illustrated, art and photography books. I have and have had some fabulous volumes featuring individual photographers or featuring specific locations or topics. Many featured women photographers, such as Annie Leibovitz. Sometimes it is only the second copy of one of Annie’s books that gets into the book business, the first having gone into our personal library. One such title is Women, text by Susan Sontag, published in 1999.
Needless to say, I was delighted to find the book featured in this musing, just last week. I was tempted to keep this one in the personal library, this is a constant struggle, but into the business it went!
Here is the description used in our Abebooks listing:
From the blurb – This comprehensive, eye-opening history of women’s accomplishments in photography ranges around the world and throughout the entire history of the medium, from the mid-1800s to the present. Women have made vital contributions to photography both as a profession and as an art form from the very beginning. In every aspect of the medium – portraiture, social and scientific documentation, advertising, photojournalism, personal expression – women have been highly active creators. Yet their achievements have often been overlooked and occasionally even credited to their male spouses or colleagues. With A History of Women Photographers. Dr. Naomi Rosenblum – author of A World History of Photography, which has become a standard reference – helps set the record straight. She explores the work of some 240 women photographers, from Anna Atkins, Julia Margaret Cameron, and Geneviève Élisabeth Francart Disdéri, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Susan Meiselas, and Cindy Sherman. Many of these individuals have not previously received the sustained scholarly study needed to establish their importance to the field, and women photographers in general have long been stinted in photographic exhibitions, collections, and criticism, as Dr. Rosenblum makes pungently clear.
This large format book, 356 pages measuring 292mmX220mm is in fine condition in a fine dust jacket that is now enclosed in a protective mylar wrap. A compelling book, indeed. This heavy volume may require additional postage.
The following 9 reproductions are some of my favorite photographs from the book and the last one is my favourite!
Cover photo
Lotte Jacobi (1896-1990) Head of a Dancer, circa 1929, Gelatin silver print, Baltimore Museum of Art.
Wanda Wulz (1903-1984) Cat and I, 1932, Gelatin silver plate, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.
Joyce Tenneson (born 1945) Suzanne in Contortion, 1990, Polaroid print.
Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895-1989) The Covert Look, 1949, Color (Chromogenic Development) Transparency, Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York.
Judy Dater (born 1941) Consuelo Cloos, 1980, Gelatin silver print.
Cristina Garcia Rodero (born 1949) Pilgrimage from Lumbier, Spain, 1980, Gelatin silver print, Gallery of Contemporary Photography, Santa Monica, California.
Hansel Mieth (born 1909) Boys on the Road, 1936, Gelatin silver print.
Charlotte Rudolph (dates unknown) Dance Image: Gret Palucca, 1923, Gelatin silver print, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupperstich-Kabinett, Dresden, Germany.
Adelaide Hanscom (1876-1932) and Blanche Cumming (dates unknown) Plate from “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”, 1912, Color Gravure Reproduction, private collection.
Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) Self-Portrait (as “New Woman”) circa 1896,
Gelatin silver print, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.