Since photography’s inception in 1839, women have stood among its artistic and technological pioneers, at the forefront of every photographic movement and style. Iconic works by Diane Arbus, Graciela Iturbide, Barbara Kruger, Dorothea Lange, Cindy Sherman, and Carrie Mae Weems, alongside many others, tell the dynamic story of photography’s evolution across six thematic sections: Modernist Innovators, Documentary Photography and the New Deal, the Photo League, Modern Masters, Exploring the Environment, and the Global Contemporary Lens.
Women played an integral role in framing the modern experience through the lens of the camera. From 1900 onward, women negotiated waves of social, political, and economic change, increasingly leveraging photography as a means of creativity, financial independence, and personal freedom. Disrupting longstanding constraints placed on women’s social behavior and spheres, early trailblazers helped establish photography not only as a vital form of creative expression but also provided a unique window on society by pursuing subjects not deemed important to male photographers. They overcame discrimination and served as role models for subsequent generations of artists across the spectrum.
Diverse in style, tone, and subject, these photographs range from spontaneous to composed, detached to empathetic, monumental to intimate. Celebrated images now familiar to us are placed in historical and thematic contexts, and contemporary works are given new prominence. Modern Women / Modern Vision reveals the bold and dynamic ways women have contributed to the development and evolution of the art of photography.