Top 10 Women Photography Obsession...

There was such an outpouring of female group love on our last post about top (most influential) contemporary living/working women photographers. A number of pushy, demanding inquisitive readers have now requested the MAO top 10 for non-working/deceased female photographers.

Actually, this list was much more difficult to compile.  Unlike a list of top 10 female : Pop Artists, Minimal Sculptors, or Abstract Expressionists, in photographic art history there are so many great women. It was almost impossible to eliminate names... It's amazing the number of women who were the pioneers in art photography.

FYI.. On Wikipedia the Pop Art entry.. it lists only 3 women (Marisol Escobar, Yayoi Kusama, and Aya Takano... who?) of the "34 Notable" Pop Artist listed. For Abstract Expressionists it was 6 of 48, and for Minimal Sculpture is was 3 of 14.

Well.. Here it is.. our MAO Top 10 (most influential) Non-working/Living Women Photographers

1. Diane Arbus
2. Dorothea Lang
3. Berenice Abbott
4. Julia Margaret Cameron
5. Margaret Bourke-White
6. Imogene Cunningham
7. Helen Levitt
8. Lisette Model
9. Tina Modotti
10. Ilse Bing

I apologize in advance for any I overlooked or had to cut off the list..

But if you can only pick 10.. Who would you include??

Comments

[Tommy]

Interesting list..

So, Who's Ilse Bing??

I think Barbara Morgan.. should probably be on this list no??

And how can you not include Lola Alvarez Bravo, Mexico's first woman photographer??

[anon]

Claude Cahun - without whom - NO Cindy Sherman......

[MaryB]

While I agree that Helen Levitt belongs on anyone's ten-best list, I am happy to say she doesn't qualify for this one. Not only is she still alive, but to the best of my knowledge she is still producing work. She is currently the subject of a two-person show at Laurence Miller Gallery--"Diane Arbus / Helen Levitt: A Conversation."

[Mike @ MAO]

Thanks MaryB for the comment..

While, I have not seen the Laurence Miller Show yet..I think this "new show" is of all old Helen Levitt work, most of it taken pre-1950's... There's one "new image" in the show, which is from 1988.

I don't think Helen is still making new photo's? Everything on the Gallery Website is pre-1992.
Plus, she's such an amzaing photogragher, so we'll keep her for our MAO list.

[n dean]

Two others who bear consideration are Lotte Jacobi and Ruth Orkin.

[Jimmy]

No smooches and V-Day greetings for Dr Quiz?! I hope there's not trouble in the MAO homefront...

[artpup]

Lee Miller might have been overlooked? Her work (independent of Man Ray's) was so personal and carried on the surrealist tradition even in her war photography. Hope she can make the list next time.

[ZS]

OK, once again, ZOE STRAUSS seems to have been left off this list. What the hell is going on? My GOD! Ok, I know I am alive and still working but can't a sister get an asterisk! Seriously!