American Women Photographers: A Selected and Annotated Bibliography

(Hardback)

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Description

American women have made significant contributions to the field of photography for well over a century. This bibliography compiles more than 1,070 sources for over 600 photographers from the 1880s to the present. As women's role in society changed, so did their role as photographers. In the early years, women often served as photographic assistants in their husbands' studios. The photography equipment, initially heavy and difficult to transport, was improved in the 1880s by George Eastman's innovations. With the lighter camera equipment, photography became accessible to everyone. Women photographers became journalists and portraitists who documented vanishing cultures and ways of life. Many of these important female photographers recorded life in the growing Northwest and the streets of New York City, became pioneers of historic photography as they captured the plight of Americans fleeing the Dust Bowl and the horrors of the concentration camps, and were members of the Photo-Secessionist Movement to promote photography as a true art form. This source serves as a checklist for not only the famous but also the less familiar women photographers who deserve attention.

Reviews

Kreisel's book, by far the most extensive listing of works by and about American women photographers to date, serves as a checklist for famous and less familiar women photographers. Highly recommended.-Choice
Libraries with patrons interested in photography, women's studies, or U.S. cultural history will find this work a useful addition to the collection.-American Reference Books Annual
This is a good choice for academic libraries, museums, and professional and amateur photographers.-Feminist Collection
"Libraries with patrons interested in photography, women's studies, or U.S. cultural history will find this work a useful addition to the collection."-American Reference Books Annual
"This is a good choice for academic libraries, museums, and professional and amateur photographers."-Feminist Collection
"Kreisel's book, by far the most extensive listing of works by and about American women photographers to date, serves as a checklist for famous and less familiar women photographers. Highly recommended."-Choice

Author Bio

MARTHA KREISEL is Assistant Professor in the Reference Department of the Joan & Donald E. Axinn Library of Hofstra University./e She is the author of previously published bibliographic and subject guides to books on the Civil War, papercutting, and photography.