Women Street Photographers, a new photobook edited by Gulnara Samoilova and published by Prestel shares the work of 100 photographers and the experiences behind their greatest images.
Street Photography, like most photographic genres, has been traditionally male-dominated. In recent years, however, more women are claiming space and offering a dynamic lens. Gulnara Samoilova’s new anthology presents a collection of international approaches from women of all ages, races, ethnicities, creeds, and sexualities.
The book comes as an extension of Samoilova’s @womenstreetphotographers, which took Instagram by storm in 2017 and quickly grew to over 100,000 followers, becoming one of the most influential Instagram feeds.
Images range from the classically “decisive moment” influenced work of photographers like Nina Welch-King and Birka Wiedmaier, to Michelle Groskopf’s flash-blasted slices of everyday life. It even includes fashion-treading images like the cover photo by B Jane Levine. Women Street Photographers’ energy and diversity of style pushes the genre to not only be more inclusive but to shift and shatter the many visual clichés holding it back.
We speak with Samoilova to learn more about why this book is so important right now, in photo history’s male-dominated canon, and in its inspiring future.
View post Shedding Street Photography’s Male-Dominated Legacy