The story begins, as so many do in the history of modern photography, with an image: a woman behind the camera, calibrating light, waiting for a moment to materialise, composing an understanding of the world.聽Women Photographers 1900-1975: A Legacy of Light, which recently opened at NGV International, expands this gesture into a sweeping, multi-generational portrait of creative ingenuity. More than 300 works by over 70 artists illuminate the breadth and complexity of women鈥檚 contributions to photography during one of the most turbulent and transformative eras in modern history. The exhibition begins with a single idea – that women鈥檚 perspectives shaped photography – and transforms it into a global narrative.
From the outset, the exhibition revels in plurality. It brings together portraiture, photojournalism, landscape, fashion, experimental modernism and intimate studies of the everyday, all held within the same frame of inquiry. These images are not footnotes to a male-authored story but pioneering works born from the social, political and cultural currents of their times. The span from 1900 to 1975 encompasses suffrage movements, global conflicts, mass migration, shifting labour patterns, decolonisation and the energy of second-wave feminism. Against this backdrop, the featured artists forged new modes of seeing.
Diane Arbus鈥檚 disquieting portraits sit in conversation with Dora Maar鈥檚 surrealist interventions, offering two radically different ways of approaching the human subject. Arbus insists on presence, on the unvarnished textures of life lived at the periphery, whereas Maar uses the photograph as a stage for psychological tension. Yet both destabilise the notion of a singular gaze. They remind us that photography is always a negotiation between maker, subject and viewer. Lee Miller provides another axis in this constellation – a figure who crossed boundaries both artistic and geographic. From the fashion studios of New York to the boulevards of Paris and the devastation of wartime Europe, Miller鈥檚 lens is dynamic and adaptive. Her 1931 portrait of Man Ray arrests the viewer with tight framing and a diverted gaze. Rather than solidifying the myth of the male artistic genius, the image positions Miller as the one in control.
Dorothea Lange鈥檚聽Migrant Mother聽functions almost as a gravitational centre within the exhibition. Seen countless times in textbooks, the image鈥檚 presence is renewed, contextualised within Lange鈥檚 wider commitment to human dignity during the Great Depression. She photographed Florence Owens Thompson and her children not to cement an icon but to bear witness to a national crisis. It is the difference between exploitation and empathy, between mythmaking and advocacy. Lange鈥檚 work reveals photography as a tool for social consciousness – a thread running through many practices in the exhibition.
The brilliance of聽A Legacy of Light聽lies in how it highlights artists long overshadowed. Lola 脕lvarez Bravo鈥檚聽Las Lavanderas聽transforms women washing clothes into a dynamic composition of shadow and rhythm. Her sensitivity to light and movement is matched by a deep respect for her subjects. Meanwhile, Olive Cotton redefines domestic space through abstraction. Her聽Teacup Ballet聽from 1935 converts crockery into a choreography of light and shadow, rendering the mundane sublime. Though Cotton鈥檚 work is formally distinct from Bravo鈥檚, both elevate the often-unseen lives of women into poetic resonance.
Ilse Bing鈥檚 explorations of the self add another dimension. Her聽Self-portrait聽of 1931 – a modernist tangle of mirrors, angles and reflection – shows how the camera can reveal and distort identity. There is a quiet humour in the image, as Bing juxtaposes her face with the omnipresent eye of the Leica. It is a reminder that women photographers have long interrogated the mechanics of looking.
In Melbourne, Ponch Hawkes鈥檚 1970s documentation of communal living and activist spaces conjures a sense of urgency. Her photographs of Gay Pride Week, women鈥檚 theatre collectives and political graffiti capture a city in flux. In her images, the personal and political merge into a shared articulation of possibility. The exhibition also presents radical experiments in identity by Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore. Their 1930 artist book聽Aveux non Avenus聽dissolves boundaries between photography, literature and performance. Cahun appears androgynous and theatrical, unbound by conventional gender expectations. These images anticipate contemporary dialogues around fluidity and self-invention, revealing that such explorations have a deeper history than commonly assumed.
Patterns emerge as atmospheric threads. There is the camera as witness, documenting lived realities: Lange鈥檚 migrant labourers, 脕lvarez Bravo鈥檚 washerwomen, Hawkes鈥檚 activists. There is the camera as collaborator, where women like Miller, Maar and Lucia Moholy shaped modernist visual language. There is the camera as instrument of self-inquiry, seen in Bing鈥檚 mirrors, Woodman鈥檚 staged reveries and Cahun鈥檚 shapeshifting personas. And there is the camera as agent of radical seeing, through which Florence Henri, Germaine Krull, Tokiwa Toyoko and others pushed photography toward abstraction and experimentation.
Women Photographers 1900-1975聽ultimately proposes a reorientation of photographic history. By foregrounding these works, the NGV signals the necessity – and urgency – of redressing archival omissions. Many of the pieces on display have entered the collection only recently, recognising that the canon is not fixed but continually evolving. The exhibition鈥檚 timing, coinciding with the 50-year anniversary of the United Nations鈥 International Women鈥檚 Year in 1975, adds another layer of resonance. This is not merely a retrospective but an act of reframing. It suggests the past still has new stories to tell.
In the end, the exhibition offers more than a celebration of artistry. It presents a tapestry of perspectives that expands our understanding of modernity itself. These photographs – intimate, political, experimental, lyrical – become a record of lives lived and worlds observed, illuminating the remarkable legacy of women who shaped the camera鈥檚 gaze long before they were fully acknowledged by history.
Women Photographers 1900鈥1975: A Legacy of Light聽is at NGV, Melbourne until 3 May:
Words: Simon Cartwright
Image Credits:
1&6. Dorothea聽Lange,聽Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California 1936,聽printed聽c. 1975 gelatin silver photograph聽49.4 x 39.6 cm (image) 50.6 x 40.7聽cm (sheet)聽Purchased, 1975.
2. Olive Cotton, Teacup ballet聽1935,聽gelatin silver photograph, ed. 21/50聽36.0 x 29.2 cm (image)聽Purchased from Admission Funds,聽1992聽漏 Courtesy McInerney family and聽Josef Lebovic Gallery, Sydney.
3. Ponch聽Hawkes, No title (Summer night in the聽backyard at Falconer Street )c. 1975, gelatin silver photo 30.3 x 20.3 cm (image) 38.3 x聽27.9聽cm (sheet) Purchased NGV Foundation, 2018 漏 Ponch Hawke.
4. Barbara Morgan, Martha Graham: Letter to the world, 1940聽gelatin silver photo聽(48.3 脳 39.4 cm)聽Bowness Family Fund for聽Photography, 2024 漏 The Estate of Barbara Morgan.
5. Trude聽Fleischmann, The actress Sibylle Binder, Viennac.聽1926 gelatin silver photograph聽21.9 x 16.0 cm聽Bowness Family Fund for聽Photography, 2022 漏 Estate of Trude Fleischman.
7. Lillian聽Bassman, More fashion mileage per dress,聽Barbara Vaughn, Harper鈥檚聽Bazaar, New York聽1956, gelatin silver photograph, ed. 13/25聽43.1 x 60.9 cm (image) 50.8 x 56.5聽cm (sheet)聽Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty聽AM and Family through聽the Australian Government鈥檚聽Cultural Gifts Program, 2023漏 Estate of Lillian Bassman.
