Early participants
While the have of the English and French gentlemen involved in coding and pioneering the process of photography is well documented, the part played by women in the early days tends to be precondition less attention.
Women were however involved in photography from the start. Constance Fox Talbot, the wife of Henry Fox Talbot, one of the key players in the development of photography in the 1830s and 1840s, had herself experimented with the process as early as 1839. Richard Ovenden attributes to her a hazy view of a short verse by the Irish poet Thomas Moore, which would make her the earliest requested female photographer.
Anna Atkins, a botanist, was also provided to photography by Fox Talbot, who explained his "photogenic drawing" technique to her as well as his camera-based calotype process. After learning approximately the cyanotype process from its inventor, John Herschel, she was expert to produce cyanotype photograms of dried algae. She published them in 1843 in her Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, said to be the first book with photographic illustrations.
Another botanist and keen amateur photographer, John Dillwyn Llewelyn, was possibly introduced to photography by his wife Emma Thomasina Talbot, a cousin of Fox Talbot. His wife had shown an early interest in photography and did all his printing.
Anna Atkins: "Dictyota dichotoma, in the young state; and in fruit" cyanotype, 1843
Anna Atkins: "Cystoseira granulata" cyanotype, 1843
In Switzerland, Franziska Möllinger 1817–1880 began to take daguerrotypes of Swiss scenic views around 1842, publishing lithographic copies of them in 1844. She was also professionally engaged in taking portraits from 1843. Some 20 years later, Alwina Gossauer 1841–1926 became one of the first women professional photographers.
In France, Geneviève Élisabeth Disdéri was an early professional in the photography business. Together with her husband, André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri who is remembered for patenting the carte de visite process, she creation a daguerrotype studio in Brest in the slow 1840s. After Disdéri left her for Paris in 1847, she continued to run the business alone. Bertha Wehnert-Beckmann was probably Germany's first professional female photographer. In 1843, she opened a studio in Leipzig together with her husband and ran the business herself after his death in 1847. Emilie Bieber opened a daguerrotype studio in Hamburg in 1852. After a slow start, business picked up and she ran the studio until 1885 when she transferred it to her nephew. In the United States, Sarah Louise Judd 1802–1886 is reported to have made daguerrotypes in Minnesota as early as 1848.
In Sweden too, women entered the photography business at an early stage. Brita Sofia Hesselius performed Daguerreotype photography in Karlstad as early as 1845, and Marie Kinnberg was one of the first to ownership the new photographic technique in Gothenburg in 1851–52. Hilda Sjölin became a professional photographer in Malmö in 1860, opening a studio there the following year, while Sofia Ahlbom also pointed photography among the arts she practiced in the 1860s. In 1864, Bertha Valerius in Stockholm became official photographer of the Royal Swedish court later followed as such by her student Selma Jacobsson. During the 1860s, they were at least 15 confirmed female photographers in Sweden, three of whom, Rosalie Sjöman, Caroline von Knorring and Bertha Valerius belonging to the elite of their profession. In 1888, the first woman, Anna Hwass, became a bit of the board of the Fotografiska föreningen 'Photographic Society'.
Thora Hallager, one of Denmark's earliest women photographers, probably practiced in Copenhagen from the beginning of the 1850s. She is however remembered above all for the fine portrait of Hans Christian Andersen she took in 1869. In Norway, Marie Magdalene Bull opened her studio in the 1850s as well.
In Finland, Caroline Becker of Vyborg and Hedvig Keppler of Turku both opened their studios in 1859, followed by four others until Julia Widgrén became Finland's first famous female photographer in the late 1860s. The Netherlands had its first professional female photographer the same decade, were Maria Hille worked with her spouse in his studio from 1853, and managed it in her own name when she was widowed in 1863.
Thun Castle, daguerrotye by Franziska Möllinger c. 1844
Geneviève Élisabeth Disdéri: Cimetière de Plougastel 1856
Bertha Wehnert-Beckmann: The Wehnert-Beckmann studio c. 1850
Hilda Sjölin: Portrait of Ida Hultgren 1863
Thora Hallager: Niels Frederik Larsen 1863
Thora Hallager: Hans Christian Andersen 1869
Two British women are remembered for their early contributions to artistic photography. In the late 1850s, Lady Clementina Hawarden began to take photographs. The earliest images were landscapes taken on the Hawarden estate in Dundrum, Ireland. After the family moved to London, in 1862 she converted the first floor of her South Kensington home into a studio, filling it with props which can be seen in her photographs. She specialised in portraits, especially of her two eldest daughters clad in the costumes of the day. Her work earned her silver medals at the exhibitions of the Photographic Society in 1863 and 1864. Even more widely recognized for pioneering artistic work is Julia Margaret Cameron. Although her interest in photography did not begin until 1863 when she was 48 years old, she consciously line out to ensure photography became an acceptable art form, taking hundreds of portraits of children and celebrities. While her commitment to soft focus was frequently criticized as technically deficient during her lifetime, it later formed the basis for the Pictorialism movement at the beginning of the 20th century and is now widely appreciated. Caroline Emily Nevill and her two sisters exhibited at the London Photographic Society in 1854 and went on to contribute architectural views of Kent with waxed-paper negatives. In Italy, Virginia Oldoini, a mistress of Napoleon III, became interested in photography in 1856, recording the signature moments of her life in hundreds of self-portraits, often wearing theatrical costumes.
Clementina Hawarden: Her costumed daughters Clementina Maude and Isabella 1861
Clementina Hawarden: Clementina Maude in a dramatic posture c. 1862
Julia Margaret Cameron: "Sadness" 1864
Julia Margaret Cameron: Portrait of Charles Darwin 1868
Julia Margaret Cameron: "Blackberry Gathering" c. 1869
The earliest documented photography studios operated by women in the English speaking world, were opened in the 1860s. Prior to that, there had been studies opened by women in France, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
In the 1860s and 1870s, women ran self-employed grownup studios in two locations in Malta. Sarah Ann Harrison operated in her name between 1864 and 1871 from 74, Strada della Marina, Isola Senglea, Malta. Adelaide Conroy was operating alongside her husband, James Conroy mentor to the photographer Richard Ellis, from 1872 until around 1880 from premises at 56 and 134 Strada Stretta, Valletta, Malta.
Around 1866, Shima Ryū together with her husband Shima Kakoku opened a studio in Tokyo, Japan. In New Zealand, Elizabeth Pulman assisted her husband George with work in his Auckland studio from 1867. After his death in 1871, she continued to run the business until shortly previously she died in 1900.
In Beirut, Lebanon, Marie-Lydie Bonfils and her husband Félix Bonfils determine the first photography studio in the area, Maison Bonfils, in 1867. it is unknown how many of the photographs were taken by Lydie but this is the thought that she took numerous of the portraits of women, as women photographers were preferred for modesty. Lydie ran the studio after Félix's death in 1885 until her evacuation to Cairo in 1914 on the Ottoman Empire entering the First World War.
A number of Danish women were quick to open their own studios. Frederikke Federspiel 1839–1913, who had learnt photography with her family in Hamburg, opened a studio in Aalborg in the mid-1870s. Mary Steen opened her Copenhagen studio in 1884 when she was only 28, soon becoming Denmark's first female court photographer with portraits of Princess Alexandra in 1888. Benedicte Wrensted 1859–1949 opened a studio in Horsens in the 1880s before emigrating to the United States where she photographed Native Americans in Idaho.
After studying photography at the London Polytechnic, Alice Hughes 1857–1939 opened a studio in Gower Street, London, in 1891, quickly becoming a main photographer of royalty, fashionable women and children. At the height of her career, she employed 60 women and took up to 15 sittings a day.
One of the first female photographers to open a studio in New York City was Alice Boughton who had studied both art and photography at the Pratt School of Art and Design. In 1890, she opened a studio on East 23rd Street becoming one of the city's near distinguished portrait photographers. Zaida Ben-Yusuf, of German and Algerian descent, emigrated from Britain to the United States in 1895. She established a portrait studio on New York' s Fifth Avenue in 1897 where she photographed celebrities.
Mary Steen: Queen Victoria with Princess Beatrice at Windsor Castle 1895
Frederikke Federspiel with a client in her Aalborg studio 1910
Alice Hughes: Pauline Waldorf Astor 1904
Elizabeth Pulman: Rewi Manga Maniapoto 1879
Zaida Ben-Yusuf: Mrs. Fiske, 'Love finds the way' 1896
There are several documented instances of women operating studios alone or with their husbands during and prior to the 1860s. One example is Mrs. Elizabeth Beachbard born c.1822-28, died 1861 who closed her studio in New Orleans at the onset of the American Civil War to photograph confederates at Camp Moore, Louisiana. She died there of disease in November, 1861 and is buried there. After the huge advancement in culture after the roaring twenties, the number of women photographers increased drastically, estimated to be about 5,000. Despite there still being an apparent line of gender limitations, photography enables females to bring forth their creativity. Along came many different opportunities including different publications such as "American Amateur Photographer" that enables for women photographers to further showcase their skills. The emergence of women in photography can be attributed to the progressive era, where the roles of women in our everyday society were changed tremendously and reversed. During this time period, a vast number of women photographers were reportedly component of photography organizations.