Breaking Barriers: Women Photographers in Print Media, 1920s to 1940s
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 5:40 AM
Description
Dr. Margaret Denny, Independent Photo Historian/ Adjunct Professor of Instruction, Columbia College, Chicago, U.S.A.
Breaking Barriers: Women Photographers in Print Media, 1920s to 1940s
Independent and fashionable New Women occupied urban spaces of the world’s capital cities in the 1920s to 40s. Epitomized by their slim silhouettes, bobbed hair style, cloche hats, and attire accessorized by elongated earrings and necklaces, women’s stylish presence was notable in Berlin, Paris, New York, and Vienna, among others. Not many of these young women adopted the camera as a fashion accessory, however. This project introduces women photographers whose adventurous spirit and camera proficiency took them far and wide documenting the period’s most current celebrities, fashion, art and architectural subjects and world events. Photographers Berenice Abbott, Thérèse Bonney, Margaret Bourke-White, Imogen Cunningham, Lotte Jacobi, Dorothea Lange, Madame d’Ora, and Lisette Model set a standard for modern photography by women.
One major factor that drew them together was the era of print media, in which photography was a primary source of disseminating news through newspapers and magazines. Women with their cameras were on the forefront of world’s events in the early twentieth century. Their presence would be noted in many arenas: documentary, portraiture, architecture, advertising, and photojournalism. These women covered events that affected nations, their citizens and ultimately the world. They captured the moment’s cultural mores and transitions. A number of these women opened portrait studios where they profiled individuals in the fine and performing arts, literary notables or people in political arenas. Some women documented strife and struggle, the landscape and peoples affected by the Great Depression and later, World War II. While still yet others travelled great distances photographing architecture, industry and industrial growth. Some of these women documented the sacrifices and tragedy of wartime on the home front and on the battlefields. All these women, and there were many more, set an example and a model for women to come.
Dr. Margaret Denny earned her doctoral degree in Art History from the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research focus is 19thc women photographers in America and Great Britain. She has taught the history of photography for twenty years at colleges and universities in Chicago and presented papers at national and international conferences. Her essay “Viewing and Display: Pre-photography to the 1970s” appears in The Handbook of Photography Studies, Gil Pasternak editor (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019). She co-curated with Dr. Amy Galpin the exhibition ""Margaret Bourke-White’s Different World,"" Cornell Fine Art Museum, Rollins College (Winter Park, Florida, 2018) and authored two essays for the accompanying catalog.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Denny, Margaret, "Breaking Barriers: Women Photographers in Print Media, 1920s to 1940s" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 18.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/18
Breaking Barriers: Women Photographers in Print Media, 1920s to 1940s
Dr. Margaret Denny, Independent Photo Historian/ Adjunct Professor of Instruction, Columbia College, Chicago, U.S.A.
Breaking Barriers: Women Photographers in Print Media, 1920s to 1940s
Independent and fashionable New Women occupied urban spaces of the world’s capital cities in the 1920s to 40s. Epitomized by their slim silhouettes, bobbed hair style, cloche hats, and attire accessorized by elongated earrings and necklaces, women’s stylish presence was notable in Berlin, Paris, New York, and Vienna, among others. Not many of these young women adopted the camera as a fashion accessory, however. This project introduces women photographers whose adventurous spirit and camera proficiency took them far and wide documenting the period’s most current celebrities, fashion, art and architectural subjects and world events. Photographers Berenice Abbott, Thérèse Bonney, Margaret Bourke-White, Imogen Cunningham, Lotte Jacobi, Dorothea Lange, Madame d’Ora, and Lisette Model set a standard for modern photography by women.
One major factor that drew them together was the era of print media, in which photography was a primary source of disseminating news through newspapers and magazines. Women with their cameras were on the forefront of world’s events in the early twentieth century. Their presence would be noted in many arenas: documentary, portraiture, architecture, advertising, and photojournalism. These women covered events that affected nations, their citizens and ultimately the world. They captured the moment’s cultural mores and transitions. A number of these women opened portrait studios where they profiled individuals in the fine and performing arts, literary notables or people in political arenas. Some women documented strife and struggle, the landscape and peoples affected by the Great Depression and later, World War II. While still yet others travelled great distances photographing architecture, industry and industrial growth. Some of these women documented the sacrifices and tragedy of wartime on the home front and on the battlefields. All these women, and there were many more, set an example and a model for women to come.
Dr. Margaret Denny earned her doctoral degree in Art History from the University of Illinois Chicago. Her research focus is 19thc women photographers in America and Great Britain. She has taught the history of photography for twenty years at colleges and universities in Chicago and presented papers at national and international conferences. Her essay “Viewing and Display: Pre-photography to the 1970s” appears in The Handbook of Photography Studies, Gil Pasternak editor (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019). She co-curated with Dr. Amy Galpin the exhibition ""Margaret Bourke-White’s Different World,"" Cornell Fine Art Museum, Rollins College (Winter Park, Florida, 2018) and authored two essays for the accompanying catalog.
Comments
All times listed are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Use timeanddate.com to convert to your local time zone.