Phenomenal Books on Women Photographers

Face In The Crowd (2013). * Crowd #2 (Emma), 2012. © Alex Prager. Courtesy Alex Prager Studio and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong.

1. Brooke DiDonato: Take a Picture, it Will Last Longer

Brings together DiDonato’s surreal work in a collection that blends nostalgia, humour and unease - Wallpaper*

Evoking feelings of nostalgia or disorientation, DiDonato’s work teeters between the familiar and the fantastical. Inspired by family homes in Ohio, her compositions challenge expectations of how space can be occupied. Torsos, legs and arms contort into uncanny arrangements across sofas and ascend into attics. Ordinary surroundings often have a compelling presence – white picket fences, corn fields, deserts and sidewalks become sites of unexpected psychological encounters as figures are subsumed by their environments. 

Take a Picture, It Will Last Longer is the first monograph of DiDonato, bringing together her most well-known bodies of work, including A House is Not a Home, alongside new works published here in print for the first time.

2. Helen Levitt

Brooklyn-born photographer Helen Levitt (1913–2009) explored the streets of her native New York with a handheld camera for over six decades.

Influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson, she found inspiration in the theatre and spontaneity of the street, capturing everyday moments in urban life and forging a distinct visual language from her private observations. The first of its kind to draw from her complete archive, Helen Levitt showcases her entire output. It not only her best-known photographs, but also her rarely seen early works from her first year using a Leica and all fifty works from the original edit of her classic 1965 photobook A Way of Seeing, with record prints preserved by Levitt herself.

3. A World History of Women Photographers

A landmark publication - Elle

A World History of Women Photographers is a magnificently illustrated showcase of the work of 300 photographers from all over the world who have used the camera as an extraordinary tool for emancipation and experimentation.

4. Zofia Zulik: Works

The Polish conceptual artist has created a body of work that amounts to a series of surreal self-portraits, an oblique history of post-war Poland and a running commentary on feminism and the avant-garde - Apollo

Zofia Kulik’s photographs are a psychic collage of the self. Inspired by eroticism, feminism, and the political and social developments of post-war Poland, her expansive work offers a radical critique of not only what it means to be an artist and a woman, but of what it means to be human. 

Bringing together these pivotal works alongside Kulik’s lesser-known but no less radical projects, Zofia Zulik: Works features comprehensive yet accessible texts from leading writers to provide a much needed introduction to one of Poland’s most important living artists.

5. Firecrackers: Contemporary Female Photography

An intriguing, varied and thought-provoking book - Royal Photographic Society Journal

Firecracker, established in 2011 by Fiona Rogers, is an online platform dedicated to supporting female photographers worldwide by showcasing their work. Building upon those foundations, Firecrackers: Contemporary Female Photography brings together photography that encompasses an eclectic variety of styles, techniques and locations, from Alma Haser’s futuristic series of portraits that use origami to create 3D sculptures within the frame, to Laura El-Tantawy’s filmic and intensely personal series on political protest in Cairo. There is a recurring theme throughout the book that serves to unite these extraordinary women and their work: the exploration of individual stories and under-discussed subjects, seen by fresh eyes.

6. Vivian Maier

For those who want sheer retinal pleasure - Shelf Awareness

When Vivian Maier’s archive was discovered in Chicago in 2007, the photography community gained an immense and singular talent. Vivian Maier is a full-career retrospective, bringing together key works from throughout her life.

7. The Lives of Lee Miller

A fascinating revelation of an adventurous and protean spirit - Sunday Times

Beautiful, bewitching and an exceptionally good photographer, Lee Miller was one of life’s adventurers. Published to coincide with the release of the film Lee, starring Kate Winslet as Lee Miller, The Lives of Lee Miller is a biography described by the Sunday Times as ‘a fascinating revelation of an adventurous and protean spirit.

8. Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive

Prager has mastered a ‘film still’ aesthetic […] that harks back to the Technicolor shockers of Hollywood’s golden age - Christie's

Alex Prager is a photographer and filmmaker whose elaborate sets and complex staging draw on a rich cultural heritage of cinematic style, informed by street photography, to produce work that is unerringly memorable. Alex Prager: Silver Lake Drive is the definitive monograph on this truly original image maker.

9. Anja Niemi: In Character

When viewed in sequence, the images could be mistaken for movie stills, melancholic mise-en-scènes evocative of anticipatory cinematic pauses - Aesthetica

Anja Niemi: In Character is the first career retrospective by one of the most exciting talents working in contemporary photography, whose work has emerged as a distinctive force within the venerable tradition of conceptual self-portraiture.

10. Breathing Space: Iranian Women Photographers

This beautiful book is a fantastic collection which speaks to women’s desire to shape the world - Amateur Photographer

Breathing Space by Anahita Ghabaian Etehadieh is a remarkable look at Iran through the lenses of 23 women photographers, at a moment in history when Iranian women are fighting for their rights with courage and determination. Exploring a range of photographic styles and genres, these practitioners record the past and present upheavals of their homeland as well as tackling subjects such as the nature of memory, the tension between tradition and modernity, and the scars of conflict and loss.

11. Lee Miller: Photographs

Tells a unique story of the second world war - Guardian

Photojournalist, war correspondent, model and Surrealist muse, Lee Miller was one of the most important women photographers of the twentieth century, working in the fields of photojournalism, fashion, portraiture and advertising. This book presents 100 of her finest works in a single volume.

Lee Miller: Photographs collects Lee Miller’s most famous documentary, fashion and war works, as well as photographs of Miller, all carefully compiled by her son the photographer Antony Penrose, with a foreword by actress Kate Winslet, who will star as Miller in the film Lee.

12. Mona Kuhn: Works

A remarkable collection - British Journal of Photography

Mona Kuhn: Works is the first retrospective by one of the most respected and widely exhibited contemporary art photographers at work today. Remarkable and intimate, Kuhn’s images offer a glimpse into the psyche as it’s expressed through the human form.

13. Julia Margaret Cameron: Arresting Beauty

One of the great pioneers of photography, and her influence remains with us. Looking at the images in this book, it is remarkable how contemporary they appear more than 150 years after they were conceived - Black + White Photography

An engaging introduction to the work and the world of pioneering photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, Arresting Beauty presents more than 120 images from the V&A’s collection, the largest holding of Cameron’s photographs in the world. Exploring her unique artistry, this book reaffirms her position as one of the most innovative and influential photographers of all time.