This is a timeline of women in photography tracing the major contributions women have made to both the development of photography and the outstanding photographs they have created over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Early 19th-century pioneers
1839 Sarah Anne Bright (1793–1866) produces what is possibly the earliest surviving photographic image taken by a woman. Constance Fox Talbot (1811–1880), wife of the inventor Henry Fox Talbot, experiments with the process of photography, possibly becoming the first woman to take a photograph.
1842 Franziska Möllinger (1817–1880) becomes the first female photographer in Switzerland, taking daguerreotypes of Swiss scenes which she publishes as lithographs in 1844.
1843 Anna Atkins (1799–1871), also a friend of Henry Fox Talbot, publishes Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, the first book with photographic illustrations. Bertha Beckmann (1815–1901), opens a studio with her husband in Leipzig, running the business herself from his death in 1847.
1844 Jessie Mann (1805–1867) takes a photograph of the King of Saxony, probably becoming the first woman photographer in Scotland.
1845 Brita Sofia Hesselius (1801–1866) makes daguerreotypes in her photographic studio in Karlstad, moving her studio to Stockholm in 1857.
1847 Geneviève Élisabeth Disdéri (c.1817–1878) assists her husband André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri in their Brest studio, later operating the business alone. Epifania de Guadalupe Vallejo (1835–1905) makes a daguerreotype portrait of her mother, Francisca Benicia Carrillo de Vallejo. Fannie Vallejo is the earliest known photographer in what was soon to become the state of California. Since she was only 12 years old, it is unlikely that she could have mastered the daguerreotype process on her own, but how she learned it and who taught her are unknown.
1848 Sarah Louise Judd (1802–c.1881) makes daguerreotypes in spring 1848, continuing for two years in Stillwater, Minnesota.
1849 Elise L'Heureux (1827–1896), together with her husband, sets up a daguerreotype studio in Quebec City, taking over the business in 1865.
Later 19th century
1850 Julia Shannon (c. 1812 – c. 1852), the first known professional woman photographer in California, advertises her work with daguerreotypes in 1850. Thora Hallager (1821–1884) begins making daguerreotypes in Copenhagen, opening her own studio around 1857.
1852 Emilie Bieber (1810–1884) opens a daguerreotype studio in Hamburg. Marie Kinnberg opens a daguerreotype studio in Gothenburg.
1853 Mary Dillwyn (1816–1906) took the first known photograph of a snowman, circa 1853.
1854 Caroline Emily Nevill (1829–1887) and her sisters Henrietta (1830–1912) and Isabel (1831–1915) exhibit at the London Photographic Society.
1855 Madame Vaudé-Green opened a photography studio in Paris, called Photographie catholique, specialising in photographs of religious painting.
1856 Virginia Oldoini (1837–1899) began taking photographs, mainly of herself in theatrical costumes. Julia Ann Rudolph (also known as Julia Ann Swift and Julia Ann Raymond; c. 1820–1890) sets up her own photography studio in Nevada City, California.
1857 Lady Clementina Hawarden (1822–1865) begins photographing in Ireland, later setting up her own private studio in London where she produced some 800 albumen prints.
1863 Emma Kirchner (1830 – 1909) sets up as the first woman photographer in her studio in Delft, Netherlands.
1864 Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–1879) begins taking photographs, becoming famous for her portraits of celebrities. Louise Thomsen (1823–1907) establishes a business in Hellebæk near Helsingør.
1867 Elizabeth Pulman (1836–1900) assists her husband in his Auckland studio, taking over the business on his death in 1871.
1869 Thora Hallager photographs Hans Christian Andersen.
1871 Adelaide Conroy was operating from 56, Strada Stretta, Valletta, Malta, until mid 1879 specialising mostly in carte de visite and albumen print.
1876 Frederikke Federspiel (1839–1913) is the first woman in Denmark to obtain a licence to trade in photography.
1880s Mollie Fly (1847–1925) ran a photo studio from the 1880s to the early 1910s in Tombstone, Arizona.
1881 Geraldine Moodie (1854–1945) establishes a studio in Battleford, Saskatchewan. She was later commissioned to create photographic records of western Canada.
1888 Mary Steen (1856–1939) becomes Denmark's first female court photographer.
1890 Sarah J. Eddy (1851–1945) begins exhibiting photographs. Her most important exhibitions were at the New School of American Photography and the selection of American Women photographers at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900.
1891 Lina Jonn (1861–1896) opened her photographic studio in Lund, Sweden, in 1891. When she retired on marriage, she handed over the studio and brand name to her sister Maria Jonn, who had trained with her and who built their brand into a flourishing business.
1892 Edith Watson (1861–1943) begins her career as a travelling photographer; her work, spanning the 1890s to the 1930s, is noted for photojournalistic images of rural life and working women in Canada.
1894 Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) becomes the first woman to open a studio in Washington, D.C.
1895 Julie Laurberg (1856–1925) opens a large successful photography business in Copenhagen's Magasin du Nord where she would employ many women. She supported women's professional participation in photography.
1896 Harriett Brims (1864–1939) opens a studio in Ingham, Queensland, working as a professional photographer for 16 years.
1899 Laura Adams Armer becomes active as a photographer in San Francisco photographing Chinatown and other areas of interest.
Early 20th century 1900 Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934) sold prints of her 1899 photograph "The Manger" (a portrait of fellow photographer Frances W. Delehanty) for $100, "the highest price ever paid for a photograph" to that time.Alvin Langdon Coburn, "American Photographs in London" Photo-era Magazine (January 1901): 212.
1901 Ladies' Home Journal featured a series of articles, "The Foremost Women Photographers in America", edited by Frances Benjamin Johnston and including Gertrude Käsebier (May), Mathilde Weil (June), The Allen Sisters (July), Emma J. Farnsworth (August), Eva Watson-Schütze (October), Zaida Ben-Yusuf (November), and Elizabeth Brownell (January 1902).Frances Benjamin Johnson, Clio: Visualizing History.
1903
Sarah Acland is taking colour photos whilst on holiday in Gibraltar. Christina Broom (1862–1939) starts selling photographs as postcards, later becoming the first female press photographer.
1904 Céline Laguarde's works Stella, Étude en brun and Pierrette were printed in L'Épreuve photographique, the only woman to appear in the publication, a significant element of the Pictorialist's ouvre.
1906 Signe Brander (1869–1942) is charged by the City of Helsinki to document photographically the changing face of the city.
1907 Dora Kallmus (1881–1963) establishes a fashion studio in Vienna, later creating portraits of celebrities.
1909 The Women's Federation of the Photographers Association of America holds its organizational meeting in Rochester, New York, with Mary Carnell as its first president.Maybelle D. Goolander, "History of the Woman's Federation of the P. A. of A." Bulletin of Photography (September 18, 1912): 417-419.
1913 Margaret Watkins (1884–1969) works as an assistant in a Boston studio, opening her own business in New York City in 1920.
1915 Katherine Russell Bleecker (1893–1996) makes three films about prison reform this year, using her own cameras. She is sometimes credited as the first professional camerawoman in American film.Alison Griffiths, Carceral Fantasies: Cinema and Prison in Early Twentieth-Century America (Columbia University Press 2016): 240-244.
1916 Trude Fleischmann (1895–1990) embarks on her career as a professional photographer, creating outstanding portraits of intellectuals and artists.
1917 Naciye Suman (1881–1973) creates a studio in Istanbul, becoming Turkey's first female photographer.
1920s Marie al-Khazen (1899–1983) was a Lebanese photographer active in the 1920s; the photographs she created are considered to constitute a valuable and unique record of their time and place.Yasmine Nachabe, "An Alternative Representation of Femininity in 1920s Lebanon: Through the Mise-en-Abîme of a Masculine Space" New Middle Eastern Studies 1(2011). Elise Forrest Harleston (February 8, 1891 – 1970) was an early African-American photographer who set up a studio in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1922 that lasted into the early 1930s. Ruth Matilda Anderson (1893 – 1983), a graduate of the Clarence H. White School of Photography, starts taking more than 14.000 documentary photographs of rural life in early 20th-century Spain for the Hispanic Society of America. Her work has found appreciation after her death in exhibitions and catalogs.
1925 Ruth Harriet Louise (1903–1940) is hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to run their portrait studio, becoming the first female photographer to be active in Hollywood.
1928 Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) opens a studio in Cleveland, Ohio, becoming a photojournalist in 1929.
1932 Ylla (1911–1955) begins photographing animals, later becoming recognized as the world's most proficient animal photographer.
1936 Ilse Bing (1899–1998) creates monochrome images which are exhibited at the Louvre and New York's Museum of Modern Art. Gerda Taro (1910–1937) is killed while covering the Spanish Civil War, becoming the first woman photojournalist to have died while working on the frontline.
1939 Homai Vyarawalla begins contributing to The Illustrated Weekly of India, developing a career as India's first female press photographer. Berenice Abbott publishes her work of bird's eye and worm's eye view photographs of New York City in Changing New York.
1940s Tsuneko Sasamoto (1914–2022) joined the Japanese Photographic Society in 1940, becoming Japan's first female photojournalist. Carlotta Corpron (December 9, 1901 – April 17, 1988) begins making the "light drawings" that establish her as a pioneer of American abstract photography.
1941 Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) becomes the first female war correspondent. Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) is awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
1945 Marion Carpenter (1920–2002) becomes a White House photographer, frequently travelling with President Truman.
Late 20th century
1950 Thousands of striking 19th-century photographs made by Staten Island photographer Alice Austen (1866-1952) are rediscovered and published.
1954 Virginia Schau (1915–1989) becomes the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Photography.
1962 Agnès Varda (1928–2019) releases her French New Wave film Cléo from 5 to 7.
1967 Polish-born Rose Mandel (1910–2002), senior photographer in the art department at the University of California, is awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship."Forty University Staff Members receive Guggenheim Fellowships for 1967" University Bulletin 15(April 10, 1967): 147.
1972 Belgian-born Liliane de Cock (1939–2013), photographic assistant to Ansel Adams from 1963 to 1972, is awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship."Remembering Liliane De Cock Morgan, Photographer, assistant to Ansel Adams" The Ansel Adams Gallery (May 29, 2013). Lorraine Monk (1922–2020) is honoured as an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contributions to photography.
1973
Sara Facio and María Cristina Orive co-found La Azotea, the first publishing house in Latin America dedicated to photography.
1974
Letizia Battaglia begins her career photographing the Sicilian Mafia.
1976
Nan Goldin (born 1953) is an American photographer and activist. Her work explores the emotions of the individual in intimate relationships and bohemian LGBTQ+ communities, especially those affected by the devastating HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
1978