HISTORIQUE OMIS: OMITTED HISTORY
Daring and strong women have far too often been missing from our cultural dialogue. Photo history books have featured the same small subset of women over and over and unfortunately, as various updated history of photography versions have been created, the coverage of women photographers compared to men has been significantly unproportionate. Yet there is an abundance of female photographers who have made great strides in the medium.
I wanted to shine a light on some of these excluded women who were pioneers in early photography. Not only have their photographs stood the test of time, each of these female photographers born before 1907 have remarkable stories on how and why they created their work. One was a globetrotting oceanographer, another was a visionary who combined science and art, one was an early adopter of self-portraits, and a free spirit who explored gender and sexual identity in the early 1900s.
Historique omis: Omitted History is a photo installation that transforms books and history by showcasing French female photographers through a montage of their photographs held in public collections with the text of the history of photography placing these women back into the history books.
Featured Photographers:
Louise Laffon (b. 1828)
Jenny de Vasson (b. 1872)
Laure Albin Guillot (b. 1879)
Claude Cahun (b. 1894)
Anita Conti (b. 1899)
Denise Bellon (b. 1902)
Denise Columb (b. 1902)
Dora Maar (b. 1907)