Gender bias in LF photography

This is a nontechnical question dealing more with the sociological aspects of LF photography.

I read this and other phot Q&A forums and am struck by the gender-biased nature of LF photography. It's not like I'm expecting to find my dream girl suddenly p eering back at me through the GG, but I was wondering why so few women seem to b e involved. Am I the only one who notices this?

Could it be the women are all busy loading sheetfilm holder and cleaning darkroo ms while the menfolk are out shooting? Or is the equipment weight keeping them away. Or is it a cultural thing?

Just wondering.

T

previous threads led to the determination that the women folk were out taking photos, whilst the men tended the fires, surfed porn sites, drooled over catalogues, and spent way too much time at photo.net.

I noticed this too and have been wondering about it.

Well said. Though, I think women have more of an intuitive approach that is bett er deserved by medium and small format cameras. It has also to do with incompatibility between a focus sing cloth and and a nice hair dress. More seriously, when I met my wife and asked her to carry my tripod the first time, I thought we where going to break on that day! We didn't but I never asked again.

Kayaking : this one is easy, women are more intelligent. I can't imagine a women (let alone anyone for that matter) being so stupid as to cross the Gulf of Mexico (completed 1 1/2 years by some nut) or other equivalent ocean in a kayak. BUT, my local Kayak club really does have more women than men!

Climbing : I believe that the recognized top free climber in the world is a women. Can't recall her name at the moment.

Photography : Only us guys care to sit around and chat about it all day, they are just out there doing it.

Ms. Stackson? Care to comment? Or are you currently engaged perusing student portfolios or processing sheet film?

Sally Mann, Elsa Dorfman, Linda Connor, Paula Chamlee, Olivia Parker....

Linda Butler (sorry, couldn't remember her name earlier), Imogene Cunningham, Alma Levenson, Dorothea Lange, Bernice Abbot.....

Judy Dater, Andrea Mordica, Ruth Bernhard....

Daniel and Paul, thanx for the laugh, sure appreciate it... Now that I am getting older, I finally stoped pondering this question, I notice this not only in LF photography, but any other hobby or interest group I have ever been in. However, if you want to see an area where woman out number men, go to the clothing stores such as Saks, Nordstroms, etc. Shopping, Michael Bolton concerts, being wined / dined and getting your hair / nails done is much more relaxing than lugging 60 lbs worth of gear up a mountain, only to sit their all day waiting for wind to die down so you can get one damn shot. Then you find out the blowing sand scratched your lens... ouch.. Sometimes I even wonder why we do it? Any woman libers, please no hate mail, I polled several woman and am only reporting the results of the survey... Whats really interesting, while touring the national parks for the last 2 years, I have only seen 2 other LF shooters, and maybe a few dozen MF shooters... 35mm dominates the world... Sometimes park rangers approach me when I have my black 8x10 stretched out to 600mm with lens hood and dark cloth... I feel as if someone reported me and the park rangers are coming to stop me, before I fire my bazooka!