This introduction to the greatest women photographers from the 19th century to today features the most important works of 60 artists, along with in-depth biographical and critical assessments.

With a rising number of women throughout the world picking up their cameras and capturing their surroundings, this book explores the work of 100 women and the experiences behind their greatest images. Traditionally a male-dominated field, street photography is increasingly becoming the domain of women. This fantastic collection of images reflects that shift, showcasing 100 contemporary women street photographers working around the world today, accompanied by personal statements about their work. Variously joyful, unsettling and unexpected, the photographs capture a wide range of extraordinary moments. The volume is curated by Gulnara Samoilova, founder of the Women Street Photographers project: a website, social media platform and annual exhibition. Photographer Melissa Breyer's introductory essay explores how the genre has intersected with gender throughout history, looking at how cultural changes in gender roles have overlapped with technological developments in the camera to allow key historical figures to emerge. Her text is complemented by a foreword by renowned photojournalist Ami Vitale, whose career as a war photographer and, later, global travels with National Geographic have allowed a unique insight into the realities of working as a woman photographer in different countries. In turns intimate and candid, the photographs featured in this book offer a kaleidoscopic glimpse of what happens when women across the world are behind the camera.

Women have been pioneering photographers since the earliest days of the art form. This expertly curated set of three volumes in the renowned Photofile series brings together 190 women photographers from all over the world, working in all styles and genres. From the imaginative experiments of the 19th century to the thriving art movements of the 20th century and on to the digital world of the 21st century, this rich and diverse overview will inspire readers to explore the work of some of the greatest photographers of all time.

Discover eight remarkable women war photographers who have documented harrowing and unforgettable crises and combat around the world for the past eighty years. Women have been on the front lines of war for more than a century. With access to places men cannot go, the women who photograph war lend a unique perspective to the consequences of conflict. From intimate glimpses of daily life to the atrocities of war, this exhibition catalog reveals the range and depth of eight women photographers' contributions to wartime photojournalism. Each photographer is introduced by a brief, informative essay followed by reproductions of a selection of their works. Included here are images by Lee Miller, who documented the liberation of Dachau and Buchenwald. The first woman journalist to parachute into Vietnam, Catherine Leroy was on the ground during the Tet Offensive. Susan Meiselas raised international awareness around the Somoza regime's catastrophic effects in Nicaragua. German reporter Anja Niedringhaus worked on assignment in nearly every major conflict of the 1990s, from the Balkans to Libya, Iraq to Afghanistan. The work of Carolyn Cole, Françoise Demulder, Christine Spengler, and Gerda Taro round out this collective profile of courage under pressure and of humanity in the face of war.

Although photography is well along in its second century, until now virtually nothing has been written about the work of black women photographers. In this historical survey Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe presents an impressive selection of photographs, commenting on the careers of the professional and fine arts photographers, from the pioneers to the women of today. The book is divided into six parts, each "Overview" describing the triumphs and struggles of various photographers of different eras. The careful attention to detail is illustrated in the photographs of early twentieth-century photographer Elnora Teal and in the work of Eslanda (Mrs. Paul) Robeson from her travels throughout the world. It also offers glimpses of black Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s and of New York's Harlem during the same period. The photographs of contemporary photographers, among them Coreen Simpson, with her flamboyant style, and Fern Logan, with her strong eye, demonstrate the talent and style black women continue to show in the field of photography. This collection of photographs - meaningful, striking, handsome - will give pleasure to photo buffs, historians, and to anyone fascinated by this neglected but vital part of history.

Women Photographers and Feminist Aesthetics makes the case for a feminist aesthetics in photography by analysing key works of twenty-two women photographers, including cis- and trans-woman photographers. Claire Raymond provides close readings of key photographs spanning the history of photography, from nineteenth-century Europe to twenty-first century Africa and Asia. She offers original interpretations of well-known photographers such as Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, and Carrie Mae Weems, analysing their work in relation to gender, class, and race. The book also pays close attention to the way in which indigenous North Americans have been represented through photography and the ways in which contemporary Native American women photographers respond to this history. Developing the argument that through aesthetic force emerges the truly political, the book moves beyond polarization of the aesthetic and the cultural. Instead, photographic works are read for their subversive political and cultural force, as it emerges through the aesthetics of the image. This book is ideal for students of Photography, Art History, Art and Visual Culture, and Gender.

The definitive text on women in photography, now in an affordable paperback edition.