Book Review: What They Saw: Historical Photobooks By Women, 1843-1999
Barbara Morgan, Martha Graham: Sixteen Dances in Photographs, 1941. Photographs of book by Jeff Gutterman.
Written by Megan May Walsh
Edited by Jana Massoud
In the January 1971 issue of ARTNews, art historian Linda Nochlin posed a critical question for feminist and art theory: “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” Inspired by the robust feminist movement of the late 1960s, Nochlin, in her article, examines the institutional and material obstacles that prevented women in the West from achieving artistic success or being noticed as an artistic genius. What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843-1999 is its own critical examination of women’s success and visibility in the arts through an anthology of photobook history. Beginning with an “intersectional lens to photobook history” (Attah), this anthology reveals all that is tragically lost when women are excluded from history, when their voices are left unheard, and when their creativity and contributions are overlooked or stolen. It unravels the archival silence women have historically endured by highlighting the incredible and groundbreaking photographic contributions by women. In other words, What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women provides an answer to Linda Nochlin’s question - because these great women artists operated in the shadows under a cloak of invisibility. They were running studios under men’s names. They were never given credit for their own work. They were creating unbeknownst to the public eye. They were ghosts.
Eiko Yamazawa, Far and Near, 1962. Photographs of book by Jeff Gutterman.
An entire remapping of photobook history, What They Saw anthology brings the fringes of photographic history to the center with chapters entitled “The New Woman,” “Nostalgia, Pop, and Revolution,” “Sexual Politics,” and “Reaching for a Photo Democracy.” In its essence, it is a reconstruction of the ‘Great Women Artists’ from scattered fragments of history collected from a contemporary vantage point. The anthology includes well-known artists such as Anna Atkins, Germaine Krull as well as lesser-known artists such as Alice Seely Harris, Varvara Stepanova, Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson, Fina Gómez, Eiko Yamazawa, and Gretta Alegre Sarfaty. Most importantly, the anthology also addresses the complete absence in photographic history - the fragments of the past lost to the wind - for many non-Western women and women of color artists.
Angèle Etoundi Essamba, Passion, 1989. Photographs of book by Jeff Gutterman.
What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women inspires another dimension to Linda Nochlin’s argument. Little to zero visibility of great women artists in history does not mean men are naturally more prone to artistic intelligence and success. Instead there are male gatekeepers around institutions and education keeping women out. What They Saw compiles all that was refused at the gates of society’s institutions and reveals the material conditions that went into systemically silencing the great women artists almost lost to time. To put it simply, What They Saw is a photographic counter-history of women artists embodied and finally memorialized in a book.
Shirin Neshat, Women of Allah, 1997. Photographs of book by Jeff Gutterman.
In collaboration with 10x10 Photobooks, the New York Public Library’s Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women will be on view in reading rooms where viewers can browse 200 photobooks from 1843 to 1999. What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women Reading Rooms will be on view at the NYPL’s main building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City from May 19th to May 21st, 2022 before touring internationally. For more information, please visit https://10x10photobooks.org/what-they-saw-historical-photobooks-by-women-publication/
