Book Review: Women Street Photographers by Gulnara Samoilova
B Jane Levine, ‘Red Upsweep’, 2019 © B JaneLevine
Women Street Photographers edited by Gulnara Samoilova © Prestel Verlag, Munich · London · New York, 2020.
Written by Dani Martin
Curated by Gulnara Samoilova, Women Street Photographers began as an ambitious idea that quickly grew into an expansive platform to showcase the talent of female photographers and the narratives their images explore. However, more often than not, male photographers’ work is at the forefront. Women Street Photographers is an ode to the women that take to the streets to capture the intimate moments of love, life, hardship, and happiness that strangers carry with them every day.
Ami Vitale, a world-renowned photojournalist who focuses on the intricacies and sufferings of war, opens the book with a foreword. She reflects on the horrors of war-stricken countries and the experience of women in that field. But to her, street photography is integral to connection and compassion: “Photography reminds us of our deep connections to one another, and can also be a means of creating awareness and understanding across culture; it is a way of making sense of what connects us in the world we share.”
Gulnara Samoilova, ‘Cloud Eaters’, 2018 ©Gulnara Samoilova
Women Street Photographers edited by Gulnara Samoilova © Prestel Verlag, Munich · London · New York, 2020.
Photographer Melissa Breyer provides a brief history into the world of women photographers and how gender and advancements in technology gave momentum to female artists. She writes that once women joined the workforce during the war, a shift began: “When the war was over, most women were sent back to their abodes to resume domestic duties, but a new independence had taken hold. The genie was out of the bottle,” she continues, “It is no coincidence that the postwar years welcomed in a new group of women who took to the streets to make photos.”
This collection contains the images of one hundred different street photographers from all around the globe. Each photo provides a perspective of a different worldview and how life is lived through the eyes of others. And with the isolation and solitude of the COVID-19 pandemic, to witness another life lived is a welcomed experience. It allows us to travel out of our bedrooms, cities, countries, and immerse ourselves in another existence. People crowd the streets, sharing cigarettes, sunbathing, and dancing, with no mask or quarantining in sight.
Laura Reid, ‘Sun Worship’, 2017 © Laura Reid
Women Street Photographers edited by Gulnara Samoilova © Prestel Verlag, Munich · London · New York, 2020.
Each page displays a photograph from an artist, along with the artist’s inspiration behind the image and their background. In Israel, Efrat Sela captures young, Orthodox Jewish boys climbing a giant sculpture. In Stockholm, Monica Flannery takes a picture of a bright green building— but on further inspection, she realized an older woman was peeping out from one of the windows, creating an unintentional story. And in India, Prabha Jayesh shares a beautiful reflective image of visitors in a temple in India.
Efrat Sela, ‘The Serpentine’, 2017 © Efrat Sela
Women Street Photographers edited by Gulnara Samoilova © Prestel Verlag, Munich · London · New York, 2020.
Street photography captures the nuanced yet beautiful intricacies of life, and shares the stories that may have gone untold otherwise. Women Street Photographers evokes a sense of freedom that is refreshing and comforting in the current global climate, and demonstrates the impact that women have on this industry.
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Emily Garthwaite, ‘A Night Bus in Kolkota,India’, 2017 © Emily Garthwaite
Women Street Photographers edited by Gulnara Samoilova © Prestel Verlag, Munich · London · New York, 2020.
