Ilse Bing’s Self-Portrait in Mirrors (1931). Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art, New York
A new exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art attempts to tell the story of photography through the lens of female photographers.
Titled “Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography,” the exhibit features over 200 images from master female photographers like Diane Arbus, Dorothea Lange, Berenice Abbott, Claude Cahun, Imogen Cunningham, Rineke Dijkstra, Florence Henri and many others that span the art-form’s 170-year history.
Organized chronologically, the exhibit leads museum-goers on a visual tour through the contributions of female photographers to a medium that was largely overshadowed by male figures during the 19th and 20th centuries. Every image in the collection was taken by a woman, and many are of women themselves.
Showcased are early, influential photos from Gertrude Kasebier, who created symbolic images of Victorian maternity at the turn of the century, a large collection of European photographs from the ’20s and ’30s, such as Ilse Bing’s famous “Self Portrait in Mirrors” (above), and the work of French photographer Dora Maar, a lover and muse to Pablo Picasso.
There is also an extensive section devoted to famed US documentary photographer and photojournalist Dorothea Lange (her iconic Depression-era “Migrant Mother” photograph is on hand), as well as notable works from later 20th century artists like Diane Arbus, Lisette Model and Yoko Ono.
“Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography” runs now through March 21, 2010, at the New York Museum of Modern Art.