The participation of women in photography goes back to the very origins of the process. Several of the earliest women photographers, most of whom were from Britain or France, were married to male pioneers or had close relationships with their families. It was above all in northern Europe that women first entered the business of photography, opening studios in Denmark, France, Germany, and Sweden from the 1840s, while it was in Britain that women from well-to-do families developed photography as an art in the late 1850s. Not until the 1890s, did the first studios run by women open in New York City.
Following Britain's Linked Ring, which promoted artistic photography from the 1880s, Alfred Stieglitz encouraged several women to join the Photo-Secession movement which he founded in 1902 in support of so-called pictorialism. In Vienna, Dora Kallmus pioneered the use of photographic studios as fashionable meeting places for the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy.
In the United States, women first photographed as amateurs, several producing fine work which they were able to exhibit at key exhibitions. They not only produced portraits of celebrities and Native Americans but also took landscapes, especially from the beginning of the 20th century. The involvement of women in photojournalism also had its beginnings in the early 1900s but slowly picked up during World War I.
Early participants While the work of the English and French gentlemen involved in developing and pioneering the process of photography is well documented, the part played by women in the early days tends to be given less attention.
The beginnings Women were however involved in photography from the start. Constance Fox Talbot, the wife of Henry Fox Talbot, one of the key players in the development of photography in the 1830s and 1840s, had herself experimented with the process as early as 1839. Richard Ovenden attributes to her a hazy image of a short verse by the Irish poet Thomas Moore, which would make her the earliest known female photographer.Maev Kennedy, "Bodleian Library launches £2.2m bid to stop Fox Talbot archive going overseas", The Guardian, 9 December 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
Anna Atkins, a botanist, was also introduced to photography by Fox Talbot, who explained his "photogenic drawing" technique to her as well as his camera-based calotype process. After learning about the cyanotype process from its inventor, John Herschel, she was able to produce cyanotype photograms of dried algae. She published them in 1843 in her Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, said to be the first book with photographic illustrations.
Another botanist and keen amateur photographer, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, was possibly introduced to photography by his wife Emma Thomasina Talbot, a cousin of Constance and Henry Fox Talbot. She had shown an early interest in photography and did all his printing.Michael Pritchard, "Llewelyn, John Dillwyn" , Michael Pritchard. Retrieved 11 April 2013. Mary Dillwyn, John's younger sister (1816–1906) is considered to be the earliest female photographer in Wales, and the first person to photograph a snowman. Her images of nature and the domestic lives of women and children in 1840s and 1850s 19th century Britain, pushing the boundaries of what could be considered as worthy photographic subjects.
The first professionals In Switzerland, Franziska Möllinger (1817–1880) began to take daguerreotypes of Swiss scenic views around 1842, publishing lithographic copies of them in 1844. She was also professionally engaged in taking portraits from 1843. Some 20 years later, Alwina Gossauer (1841–1926) became one of the first women professional photographers.
In France, Geneviève Élisabeth Disdéri was an early professional in the photography business. Together with her husband, André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri who is remembered for patenting the carte de visite process, she established a daguerreotype studio in Brest in the late 1840s. After Disdéri left her for Paris in 1847, she continued to run the business alone.Kelly E. Wilder, "Geneviève Élisabeth Disdéri", Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Retrieved 12 April 2013. In 1855, Madame Vaudé-Green opened Photographie catholique, a photography studio in Paris, specialising in photographic paper reproduction of masterpieces of religious paintings, such as Peter Paul Rubens, Fra Bartolomeo and Nicolas Poussin.
Bertha Wehnert-Beckmann was probably Germany's first professional female photographer. In 1843, she opened a studio in Leipzig together with her husband and ran the business herself after his death in 1847.Nicole Schönherr, Straßennamen in Dresden – Reine Männersache? Landeshauptstadt Dresden. Der Oberbürgermeister, Gleichstellungsbeauftragte für Frau und Mann, Dresden 2005, page 32. Retrieved 12 April 2013. Emilie Bieber opened a daguerreotype studio in Hamburg in 1852. After a slow start, business picked up and she ran the studio until 1885 when she transferred it to her nephew.Rita Bake, "Emilie Bieber", Hamburg.de. Retrieved 12 April 2013. In 1863, German photographer Emma Kirchner moved to Delft in Holland and opened her studio E. Kirchner & Co.
In the United States, Sarah Louise Judd (1802–1886) is reported to have made daguerreotypes in Minnesota as early as 1848. There was also Dorothea Lange who started off taking pictures of landscaping in 1939 and making it more popular then it was in the early 1900s then moved on to documenting photography where she has her most famous pieces such as the Migrant Mother . Also the empowering nude photographs that Elsa Dorfman took in the 1970s to show empowerment through pictures and finding a way to express herself her way through photographs.
In Sweden too, women entered the photography business at an early stage. Brita Sofia Hesselius performed Daguerreotype photography in Karlstad as early as 1845,Värmland förr och nu 1984. Karlstad framför kameran. Bromander, Carl Wilhelm: Från dagerrotypi till kamerakonst. Ett yrkes åttioårshistoria i Karlstad. Marie Kinnberg was one of the first to use the new photographic technique in Gothenburg in 1851–52, and Hedvig Söderström became the first woman to open her own studio in the capital in 1857.Dahlman, Eva: Kvinnliga pionjärer, osynliga i fotohistorien Hilda Sjölin became a professional photographer in Malmö in 1860, opening a studio there the following year,"Hilda Sjölin" , Malmö Museer. Retrieved 12 April 2013 while Sofia Ahlbom also included photography among the arts she practiced in the 1860s.Wilhelmina Stålberg, P. G. Berg, "Sofia Ahlbom", "Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor" (1864). Retrieved 12 April 2013. In 1864, Bertha Valerius in Stockholm became official photographer of the Royal Swedish court (later followed as such by her student Selma Jacobsson). During the 1860s, they were at least 15 confirmed female photographers in Sweden, three of whom, Rosalie Sjöman, Caroline von Knorring and Bertha Valerius belonging to the elite of their profession. In 1888, the first woman, Anna Hwass, became a member of the board of the Fotografiska föreningen ('Photographic Society').
Thora Hallager, one of Denmark's earliest women photographers, probably practiced in Copenhagen from the beginning of the 1850s. She is however remembered above all for the fine portrait of Hans Christian Andersen she took in 1869.Tove Hansen, "Kvinders fotografi Kvindelige fotografer i Danmark før 1900" , Fund og Forskning, Vol 29 (1990). Retrieved 12 April February 2013. In Norway, Marie Magdalene Bull opened her studio in the 1850s as well.
In Finland, Caroline Becker of Vyborg and Hedvig Keppler of Turku both opened their studios in 1859, followed by four others until Julia Widgrén became Finland's first famous female photographer in the late 1860s.Valokuvan taide : suomalainen valokuva 1842-1992 / /toim. / Jukka Kukkonen, Tuomo-Juhani Vuorenmaa, Jorma Hinkka. - Hki : Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura, 1992, s. 362-364. - (Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seuran toimituksia, ISSN 0355-1768; 559) The Netherlands had its first professional female photographer the same decade, were Maria Hille worked with her spouse in his studio from 1853, and managed it in her own name when she was widowed in 1863.
Pioneering artists Two British women are remembered for their early contributions to artistic photography. In the late 1850s, Lady Clementina Hawarden began to take photographs. The earliest images were landscapes taken on the Hawarden estate in Dundrum, Ireland. After the family moved to London, in 1862 she converted the first floor of her South Kensington home into a studio, filling it with props which can be seen in her photographs. She specialised in portraits, especially of her two eldest daughters clad in the costumes of the day. Her work earned her silver medals at the exhibitions of the Photographic Society in 1863 and 1864.Mike Merritt, "The Scottish aristocrat whose pioneering photography drew admiration from Lewis Carroll", The Scotsman, 7 February 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2013. Even more widely recognized for pioneering artistic work is Julia Margaret Cameron. Although her interest in photography did not begin until 1863 when she was 48 years old, she consciously set out to ensure photography became an acceptable art form, taking hundreds of portraits of children and celebrities. While her commitment to soft focus was frequently criticized as technically deficient during her lifetime, it later formed the basis for the Pictorialism movement at the beginning of the 20th century and is now widely appreciated."Artistic Portraiture: Julia Margaret Cameron", Woman Photographers, UCR/California Museum of Photography. Retrieved 13 April 2013."Julia Margaret Cameron's Women" , San Francisco Museum of Art. Retrieved 13 April 2013. Caroline Emily Nevill and her two sisters exhibited at the London Photographic Society in 1854 and went on to contribute architectural views of Kent with waxed-paper negatives."Caroline Emily Nevill", Luminous Lint. Retrieved 7 May 2013. In Italy, Virginia Oldoini, a mistress of Napoleon III, became interested in photography in 1856, recording the signature moments of her life in hundreds of self-portraits, often wearing theatrical costumes.
Studio work in the 19th century The earliest documented photography studios operated by women in the English speaking world, were opened in the 1860s. Prior to that, there had been studies opened by women in France, Germany, Denmark, Finland and Sweden in the 1840s and 1850s.
In the 1860s and 1870s, women ran independent studios in two locations in Malta. Sarah Ann Harrison operated in her name between 1864 and 1871 from 74, Strada della Marina, Isola (Senglea), Malta.Giovanni Bonello, "More notes for a history of photography in Malta", Times of Malta. Retrieved 8 March 2019. Adelaide Conroy was operating alongside her husband, James Conroy (mentor to the photographer Richard Ellis), from 1872 until around 1880 from premises at 56 and 134 Strada Stretta, Valletta, Malta.
Around 1866, Shima Ryū together with her husband Shima Kakoku opened a studio in Tokyo, Japan.Bennett, Terry. Photography in Japan: 1853–1912, Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 2006. . In New Zealand, Elizabeth Pulman assisted her husband George with work in his Auckland studio from 1867. After his death in 1871, she continued to run the business until shortly before she died in 1900."Pulman, Elizabeth", Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Retrieved 7 May 2013.
In Beirut, Lebanon, Marie-Lydie Bonfils and her husband Félix Bonfils established the first photography studio in the area, Maison Bonfils, in 1867. It is unknown how many of the photographs were taken by Lydie but it is thought that she took many of the portraits of women, as women photographers were preferred for modesty. Lydie ran the studio after Félix's death in 1885 until her evacuation to Cairo in 1914 on the Ottoman Empire entering the First World War.