List of American women photographers

This is a list of women photographers who were born in the United States or whose works are closely associated with that country.

A

  • Kathryn Abbe (1919–2014), worked for Vogue in the early 1940s, later freelance, subjects include children, musicians and actors
  • Berenice Abbott (1898–1991), black and white photography of New York's architecture in the 1930s, part of the straight photography movement
  • Esther Henderson Abbott (1911–2008), first woman photographer for Arizona Highways Magazine
  • Harriet Chalmers Adams (1875–1937), explorer whose expedition photographs were published in National Geographic
  • Marian Hooper Adams (1843–1885), early portrait photographer, also local landscapes
  • Lynsey Addario (born 1973), photojournalist often focusing on the role of women in traditional societies
  • Laura Aguilar (1959–2018), strong feminist focus
  • Lili Almog (born 1961), Israeli-American photographer, work includes nuns and Chinese Muslims
  • Joan Almond (1935–2021), black and white photographer who prints her own works
  • Nina Alovert (born 1935), Russian-American ballet photographer, writer
  • Sama Raena Alshaibi (born 1973), see Palestine
  • Jane Fulton Alt (born 1951), documented Hurricane Katrina
  • Ruth Matilda Anderson (1893–1983), documented rural life in early 20th-century Spain.
  • Nancy Lee Andrews (born 1947), fashion, music covers
  • Yvette Borup Andrews (1891–1959), photographed Central Asia for the American Museum of Natural History
  • Eleanor Antin (born 1935), also works with video, film, performance and drawing
  • Amy Arbus (born 1954), a New York City–based photographer
  • Diane Arbus (1923–1971), black and white photographs of deviant and marginal people
  • Laura Adams Armer (1874–1963), portraiture in San Francisco, images of the Navajo
  • Eve Arnold (1913–2012), photojournalist with Magnum Photos
  • Kristen Ashburn (born 1973), photojournalist covering AIDS in southern Africa, tuberculosis and Hurricane Katrina
  • Jane Evelyn Atwood (born 1947), documentary photographer living in Paris
  • Ellen Auerbach (1906–2004), German-born Jewish immigrant, remembered for pre-war work in her Berlin studio
  • Alice Austen (1866–1952), from Staten Island, producing some 8,000 photographs from 1884
  • Elizabeth Axtman (born 1980), emphasis on race in American culture

B

  • Susan Ford Bales (born 1957), photojournalist, daughter of President Gerald Ford
  • Catharine Weed Barnes (1851–1913), early female editor of photographic journals, strong supporter of women photographers
  • Tina Barney (born 1945), large-scale portraits of family and friends
  • Martine Barrat (date of birth unknown), see France
  • Ruth-Marion Baruch (1922–1997), series on the Black Panthers and the San Francisco Bay area
  • Lillian Bassman (1917–2012), early fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar
  • Erica Baum (born 1961), New York photographer using printed paper and language as subject
  • Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870–1942), born in Canada, first published female photojournalist in the United States
  • Carol Beckwith (born 1945), photographer of the indigenous tribal cultures of Africa
  • Vanessa Beecroft (born 1969), see Italy
  • Jamie Beck (born 1983)
  • Zaida Ben-Yusuf (1869–1933), portraits of notable Americans at the turn of the 19th–20th century, portrait gallery in New York from 1897
  • Lynne Bentley-Kemp (born 1952), fine arts photographer, photography educator, and researcher
  • Berry Berenson (1948–2001), freelance photographer publishing in Life, Glamour, Vogue and Newsweek
  • Nina Berman (born 1960), documentary photographer, military focus
  • Ruth Bernhard (1905–2006), nude photography of women and commercial photography in Hollywood
  • Edyth Carter Beveridge (c. 1862 – 1927), photojournalist
  • Ania Bien (born 1946), Polish-American photographer now in Amsterdam, focus on discrimination and refugees
  • Joan E. Biren (born 1944), focus on lesbians and feminism
  • Nadine Blacklock (1953–1998), nature photographer around Lake Superior
  • Julie Blackmon (born 1966), children and family life
  • Andrea Blanch (born 1946), portraits of celebrities, especially Italian men
  • Lucienne Bloch (1909–1999), Swiss-born American artist and photographer, remembered for association with Diego Rivera
  • Gay Block (born 1942), portrait photographer of Jewish life in Texas, Miami Beach, and Christian Rescuers from WWII; has published several photobooks
  • Debra Bloomfield (born 1952), has worked in landscape since 1989; recent work has been described as "reflective activism"
  • Thérèse Bonney (1894–1978), photojournalist remembered for her images of the Russian-Finnish front in World War II
  • Meghan Boody (born 1964), surrealist photographer
  • Andrea Booher, FEMA photographer
  • Carrie Boretz, street photographer
  • Nancy Borowick (born 1985), family and social issues
  • Barbara Bosworth (born 1953), American artist, photographer. Bosworth works primarily with a large-format, 8x10 view camera and focuses on the relationship between humans and nature.
  • Alice Boughton (c. 1867 – 1943), theatrical portraits, worked with Gertrude Käsebier, member of the Photo-Secession movement
  • Margaret Bourke-White (1906–1971), first foreigner to photograph Soviet industry, first female war correspondent and first woman photographer for Life
  • Louise Arner Boyd (1887–1972), explorer who took hundreds of photographs of the Arctic, detailed photographic documentation of Poland in 1934
  • Louise Boyle (1910–2005), documented African-American farm workers in Arkansas during the Great Depression
  • Marilyn Bridges (born 1948), ancient sites around the world
  • Deborah Bright (born 1950), is an American photographer, writer, professor, and painter specializing in critical landscape photography and queer photography and painting
  • Sheila Pree Bright (born 1967), fine art photographer whose work includes documentary photographic "visual essays" and portraiture.
  • Anne Brigman (1869–1950), one of the original members of the Photo-Secession movement, images of nude women (including self-portraits) from 1900 to 1920
  • Charlotte Brooks (1918–2014), photojournalist, staff photographer for Look
  • Ellen Brooks (born 1946), pro-filmic approach, often photographing through screens
  • Kate Brooks (born 1977), photojournalist specializing in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan
  • Adrien Broom (born 1980), fashion and fine art photographer specializing in images of young women
  • Zoe Lowenthal Brown (1927–2022), fine art photography, documentary photographic "visual essays", and portraiture.
  • Esther Bubley (1921–1998), expressive photos of ordinary people, later specializing in children in hospitals and other medical themes
  • Sonja Bullaty (1923–2000), photojournalist and landscape photographer
  • Elizabeth Buehrmann (c. 1886 – c. 1963), pioneer of home portraits
  • Shirley Burman (born 1934), women in railroad history
  • Eleanor Butler Alexander-Roosevelt (1888–1960), images of dignitaries, travel photos of Europe and Asia

C

D

  • Louise Dahl-Wolfe (1895–1989), fashion photographer for Harper's Bazaar
  • Deborah Dancy (born 1949), African-American painter, photographer, mixed media artist
  • Eileen Darby (1916–2004), photographer of Broadway theatre productions
  • Judy Dater (born 1941), best known for her book Imogen and Twinka about the photographer Imogen Cunningham
  • Diana Davies (born 1938), graphic artist and photojournalist
  • Lynn Davis (born 1944), large-scale black-and-white photographs specializing in monumental landscapes and architecture
  • Liliane de Cock (1939–2013), Belgian-American photographer, Guggenheim fellow
  • Perla de Leon (born 1952), New York based photographer
  • Mary Devens (1857–1920), prominent pictorial photographer of the early 20th century
  • Maggie Diaz (1925–2016), see Australia
  • Jessica Dimmock (born 1978), documentary photographer, covered drug addicts in New York over eight years
  • Carolyn Drake (born 1971), documentary photographer, particularly of central Asia
  • Corinne Dufka, photojournalist
  • Barbara DuMetz (born 1947), pioneering African-American commercial photographer
  • Jeanne Dunning (born 1960), photographer of the human body

E

F

G

H

I

  • Connie Imboden (born 1953), photographer of nudes
  • Edith Irvine (1884–1949), documentary work including the San Francisco earthquake

J

  • Marcey Jacobson (1911–2009), indigenous peoples of southern Mexico
  • Acacia Johnson (born 1990), polar photographer
  • Belle Johnson (1864–1945), portraiture, including character studies, and photographs of animals (especially cats)
  • Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952), early photojournalist, first woman to have a studio in Washington, D.C., portraits of celebrities for magazines
  • Lynn Johnson (born 1953), photojournalist
  • Roz Joseph (1926–2019), took black-and-white photographs of New York City, world travels
  • Sarah Louise Judd (1802–1886), early photographer in Minnesota taking daguerreotypes in 1848

K

L

M

  • Diane MacKown, portraits
  • Vivian Maier (1926–2009), unknown during her lifetime, her street photographs of Chicago were first published in 2011
  • Rose Mandel (1910–2002), Polish-born photographer based in Berkeley, won Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967
  • Ann Mandelbaum (born 1945), artist and photographer
  • Sally Mann (born 1951), large black-and-white photographs of young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death
  • Nancy Manter (born 1951), weather, the environment and landscape
  • Lizbeth Marano (born 1950), images from Iceland, France, Italy and Spain
  • Malerie Marder (born 1971), human intimacy
  • Mary Ellen Mark (1940–2015), known for photojournalism, portraits and advertising photography, also covered homelessness, drug addiction and prostitution
  • Diana Markosian (born 1989), documentary/photo-essayist
  • Louise Martin (1911–1995), known for photographs of the Funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Margrethe Mather (1886–1952), collaborated with Edward Weston
  • Jill Mathis (born 1964), works based on etymology
  • Rebecca Matlock (1928–2019), images from Moscow and Czechoslovakia
  • Kate Matthews (1870–1956), photographed scenes of everyday life in Pewee Valley, Kentucky, also as illustrations for Annie Fellows Johnston's The Little Colonel books
  • Dona Ann McAdams (born 1954), performance photography
  • Linda McCartney (1942–1998), photographed pop stars in the 1960s
  • Melodie McDaniel (born 1967), celebrity portraits, fashion, advertising
  • Elizabeth Parker McLachlan (born 1938), photographer, professor, writer and editor specializing in the Bury Bible
  • Laura McPhee (born 1958), art photography
  • Susan Meiselas (born 1948), documentary photographer working for Magnum Photos, covering human rights issues in Latin America and the Nicaraguan Revolution
  • Meryl Meisler (born 1951), photographed in New York City nightclubs and residents of Bushwick, Brooklyn
  • Monika Merva (born 1969), photographer and artist
  • Florence Meyer (1911–1962), celebrity portrait photographer
  • Sonia Handelman Meyer (1920–2022), street photographer
  • Hansel Mieth (1909–1998), born in Germany, joined Life magazine in 1937 until the early 1950s, photographing the Japanese at internment camps during World War II
  • Lee Miller (1907–1977), fashion photographer in Paris, war correspondent for Vogue covering the London blitz and the liberation of Paris
  • Susan Mikula (born 1958), photographer and artist
  • Cristina Mittermeier (born 1966), Mexican-American, known for images of indigenous people
  • Lisette Model (1906–1983), born in Austria, first photographed the upper classes in Nice in 1934, later worked for PM magazine in New York, also publishing in Harper's Bazaar
  • Andrea Modica (born 1960), photography professor
  • Barbara Morgan (1900–1992), photographer of modern dancers, co-founder of Aperture
  • Lida Moser (1920–2014), photojournalism, documentaries and street photography, contributed to Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Look and Esquire
  • Helen Messinger Murdoch (1862–1956), pioneered the use of autochromes in travel photography

N

  • Marilyn Nance (born 1953), official photographer for the North American Zone of FESTAC 77, the Second World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture, and two-time finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Award in Humanistic Photography.
  • Bea Nettles (born 1946), alternative techniques
  • Lennette Newell (born 1959), animal, advertising, fashion, commercial and wildlife photography
  • Carol Newsom (1946–2003), sports photojournalist with focus on tennis
  • Liz Nielsen (active since 2002), traditional analogue photographer
  • Lora Webb Nichols (1883–1962), photographed every day life in Wyoming
  • Anne Noggle (1922–2005), a photographer after a career as an aviator, depicted the ageing process of women and as curator introduced other women photographers to the public
  • Dorothy Norman (1905–1997), amateur portrait photographer

O

  • Catherine Opie (born 1961), addresses documentary photography, professor of photography at UCLA
  • Kei Orihara (born 1948), Japanese photographer resident in the US for several periods
  • Ruth Orkin (1921–1985), photojournalist contributing to Life, Look and Ladies' Home Journal, later teaching photography in New York City
  • Gina Osterloh (born 1973), photographer, conceptual artist

P

R

S

T

U

  • Doris Ulmann (1884–1934), known for her portraits of craftsmen and musicians from Appalachia
  • Penelope Umbrico (born 1957), is an American visual artist working with appropriated photographic images.

V

W

Y

  • Bunny Yeager (1929–2014), figure photographer and former pin-up model
  • Becky Yee (born 1969), portrait photographer and business founder[7]
  • Yelena Yemchuk (born 1970), fashion, advertising and album photography, also videos

Z

See also

References

  1. ^ "Joan Cassis". portlandartmuseum.us. Retrieved 2020-01-13.
  2. ^ Morgan, Barbara (2002). "Kendall, Marie Hartig (1854–1943)". In Commire, Anne (ed.). Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Waterford, Connecticut: Yorkin Publications. ISBN 0-7876-4074-3.
  3. ^ John Leland. "Looking Like Lincoln". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b "PAST SOC LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS". SOC Awards. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  5. ^ Tully, Judd (May 25, 2011). "Art Market Shakes Off the Blues With Christie's Sizzling $301.6 Million Contemporary Sale". Blouin Artinfo. Archived from the original on February 1, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  6. ^ "Biographical Note from A Finding Aid to the Nina Howell Starr papers, 1933-1996". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  7. ^ Mason, Amelia (2016-04-05). "5 Ways To Diversify The Music Industry Right Now". Retrieved 2022-05-31.
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