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Imogen Cunningham
Imogen Cunningham is an American photographer known for botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham majored in chemistry in college and was able to improve upon developing platinum paper. Cunningham dabbled in many styles of photography, including pictorialism as well as straight photography and was one of the founding members of Group f/64. Later in life, Cunningham began to do documentary street photography. She continued to photograph until her death in 1976. -
Dorothea Lange
Born Dorothea Nutzhorn in New Jersey, Dorothea took her mother's maiden name at the age of 12, after her father had abandoned their family. Lange had also contracted polio at the age of 7, which gave her a permanent limp. Lange was a documentary photographer most known for her work with the Farm Security Administration during the depression. She showed the hardships of sharecroppers, displaced farm families and migrant workers. -
Margaret Bourke-White
American documentary photographer Margaret Bourke-White is most known for being the first female war correspondent. She was also the first woman permitted to work in combat zones and the first foreign photographer to take pictures of Soviet Industry. Bourke-White was also the first female photographer on Life Magazine's staff. She was known as "Maggie the Indestructible" after travel with the US Army during World War II. -
Eve Arnold
Eve Arnold was an American photojournalist and the first female member of the prestigious photographic cooperative, Magnum Photos. Arnold photographed a variety of subjects, including well-known public figures (like Queen Elizabeth II, Marilyn Monroe, and Malcolm X) as well as the poor and dispossessed (migrant workers, civil-rights protestors, and disabled Vietnam war veterans). Arnold's work was at the forefront of the postwar photography movement. -
Diane Arbus
Born Diane Nemerov in New York, Arbus is known for photographing the marginalized and "deviant" (dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers). She often developed a strong relationship with her subjects and sometimes went back to re-photograph them after many years. Arbus is the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale. -
Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier was an American street photographer who spent much of her childhood in France. Maier returned to the US and worked as a nanny. During those years, she photographed the people and architecture of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles during the 1950s and 60s. She also traveled.All of Maier's work remained unknown until a box of her possessions was sold after her death in 2009 and scans of Maier's negatives were put on the Internet. Maier shot with a medium format camera. -
Annie Leibovitz
Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is a well-known American portrait photographer. She was born in Connecticut and was the third of six children. In the 1970's, Leibovitz worked as chief photographer for Rolling Stones Magazine and was the last person to professionally photograph John Lennon. Leibovitz is one of today's most famous portrait photographers. She has shot many celebrity portraits and is known for the controversy that surrounds a lot of her images. -
Carrie Mae Weems
Carrie Mae Weems is an American artist that works in photography and film. Much of her work comments on racism, gender relations, politics, and personal identity. She does not call herself a documentary photographer, but rather believes she creates staged representations. Weems, pays special attention to black women in her work because they are not well represented in popular media. Throughout her life, Weems has won numerous awards, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 2013. -
Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin is an American photographer most known for photographing Boston's "underground life," including the gay and transsexual communities as well as the drug scene. Her most well-known work is a slideshow titled "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency."Goldin's photography relies on a snapshot aesthetic and autobiographical. Her photographs depict drug use, violence, and aggressive couples, as well as the "down and out" members of society. -
Cindy Sherman
Cindy Sherman is an American photographer and film director known for her portraits, in which Sherman dresses up as various characters. She does not call her photographs self-portraits because Sherman feels anonymous in them. Sherman's conceptual photography is often called controversial and brings up issues such as the objectification of women and women stereotypes. Sherman currently holds the recognition of having the second and sixth most expensive photographs ever sold.
