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Women’s Camera Work explores how photographs
have been and are used to construct versions of history and examines
how photographic representations of otherness often tell stories
about the self. In the process, Judith Fryer Davidov focuses on
the lives and work of a particular network of artists linked by
time, interaction, influence, and friendship—one that included
Gertrude Käsebier, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, and Laura
Gilpin. Women’s Camera Work ranges from American women’s
photographic practices during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries to a study of landscape photography.
Using contemporary
cultural studies discourse to critique influential male-centered
historiography and the male-dominated art world, Davidov exhibits
the work of these women; tells their absorbing stories; and discusses
representations of North American Indians, African Americans,
Asian Americans, and the migrant poor. Evaluating these photographers’
distinct contributions to constructions of Americanness and otherness,
she helps us to discover the power of reading images closely,
and to learn to see through these women’s eyes. In presenting
one of the most important strands of American photography, this
richly illustrated book will interest students of American visual
culture, women’s studies, and general readers alike.
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