Women and Large Format

[dwross]

Diane,

I know just what you mean. I feel the same way about my photography. Your work is beautiful - and yes, sensitive - but I wouldn't be able to look at it and see the hidden label 'made by a woman'. The same is true for the gorgeous photography of Tori Nelson and Trish Herremans.

Not so for Sally Mann. And, she may be one of the few female photographers whose name would be recognizable by the general public. Her work is excellent and she should be recognized, but so also, should Paula Chamlee.

For me, it always comes back to photography - plain and simple. All good photography puts the sensitivity and emotion of its maker on display for a viewer. In all honesty, the photography that has most often caused my breath to catch or has brought tears to my eyes has been made by a man. You really gotta love photography.

And Bruce, my husband agrees completely with your assessment of engineering. He is a software engineer who works with engineers. I've heard from his female co-workers how much they appreciate his attitude and support. I'm sure the same is true for the women you worked with. (And, Bourke-White had a tremendous influence on me, too. I blush a bit now, but my first 'real' camera was a Speed Graphic that I got from a retired Chicago news photographer. It was hard not to picture B-W in my mind's eye while I was learning to use the camera.)

Denise

[Kuzano]

this excerpt from the OPB web site (Oregon Public Broadcasting):


"Sarah Hall Ladd and Lily White

In the early 1900s Sarah Hall Ladd (1857-1927) and Lily White (1866-1944) lived together aboard a large houseboat in the Columbia River Gorge. Lily White was from a prosperous pioneer family. Sarah Ladd had married into the wealthy Ladd family. Both excelled at photography and became internationally known for their pictorialist-style landscapes of the Gorge filled with soft light, clouds and atmosphere. Many of their photographs illustrated travel brochures and magazines helping draw tourism to the area. Lily White also took portraits of Native Americans."

Link to the profile page:

http://www.opb.org/programs/oregonex...w/slideshows/2

According to the show (available on video) the Houseboat they lived on was complete with a processing lab. As I recall the houseboat was provided by Sarah Hall Ladd and equipped explicitly for the two of them to photograph and create images of the Columbia River Gorge. They were living on the Columbia River during roughly the same time as Carleton Watkins and the Kiser brothers were photographing the gorge.

[Kirk Gittings]

Did anyone mention Linda Conner? She was big time when I got involved in photography in the late 60's. I loved those 8x10 contact prints of hers.

[Merg Ross]

Did anyone mention Linda Conner? She was big time when I got involved in photography in the late 60's. I loved those 8x10 contact prints of hers.

Wonderful choices for the Linda list; I have an addition.

http://www.edelmangallery.com/connor.htm

[pkphotog]

Virginia Beahan and Laura McPhee.

[Ed O'Grady]

Lilian DeCock, Sonia Noskowiak(sp), Maria Consindas, Tina Modotti, Christine B Fletcher, Judy Dater, Lynne Cohen

[colker]

Are there any black female large format photographers....?

black lesbian female.. make it jewsih also.

[Turner Reich]

It depends on the Woman, they are not all alike if you hadn't guessed.

[QT Luong]

more women doing contemporary LF work:
Rineke Dijkstra
Candida Hofer
Catherine Opie
Taryn Simon

[johnschlicher]

I don't think it matter's, when you look at a photograph you either like it, or you don't. Does any one really look at at a photograph, and say hum? wonder if a woman, or a black man took that?? I would shoot with either of them, I'm stuck in Wichita, Ks and there's not anyone to shoot with, let alone a camera store who supplies L.F gear