The Cambridge U3A class met for Five Facets of Photography – Women and Photography today. The first three classes included work by 15 women photographers (more will be included in the fifth class). Today we took a more focused look at women in photography within the context that, as practitioners, they have been unfairly marginalised in the history of the medium, though women have always been the object of the camera’s (most often male) gaze.
I approached the subject under four headings:
- Significant women practitioners (14), selected to show the diversity of their work, e.g. Olive Edis, Vivian Sassen
- How women are seen in photography and art, e.g. a Madonna, a Venus
- How women are seen in photography – the ideal, e.g. cinema, fashion, and the real, e.g. aged, poor
- Women controlling their own image, from Queen Victoria via Marlene Deitrich and the selfie
The themes were illustrated by photographs from 35 women photographers (and nine men), ranging historically from Lady Clementina Hawarden to Tina Modotti and Margaret Bourke-White to Zanele Muholi. The work showed that women are often represented passively, if not submissively, as is the case with painting. However, at its best photography comes into its own in giving women agency and showing the reality of their lives. Three significant political strands emerged in the attitudes of the photographers shown: radicalism in varying shades of left wing opinion; feminist concern for the position of women both as photographers and subject matter; and engagement with LGBTQ+ issues.