Gover, C. Jane The Positive Image

Gover, C. Jane, The Positive Image: Women Photographers in Turn of the Century America. New York: State University of New York Press, 1988

In the opening chapter ‘There Will Be a New Era,’ Gover outlines the relationship between women and photography from its early pioneer days to the end of the nineteenth century, stating the importance of Eastman’s advertisements in attracting women to the medium by depicting them as fully independent despite the restrictions they still faced. Gover begins by describing the social and political atmosphere around the end of the nineteenth century, a time when feminist movements were demanding rights for women whilst new technologies were being discovered. In light of this, women wished to involve themselves …show more content…
Curtis begins by describing a key moment within Johnston’s career, when she was invited by the International Congress of Photography to attend the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris. Being the only female photographer invited to the Exposition, it is clear that Johnston was working at a time when men still dominated the medium; however, according to Curtis, the success that she achieved in Paris signalled the beginnings of female emancipation, both within the world of photography and within wider …show more content…
The author begins by describing the coming of the ‘new woman’ at the beginning of the twentieth century, at a time when women were venturing out into the world and challenging the male ownership of recreational pursuits, especially photography. Greenhill links this rise of female photographers to the technological improvements which occurred during the late nineteenth century, in which both photographic apparatus and public transport were made accessible to women, allowing them to escape the domestic sphere and create their own images within new locations. As a ‘new woman’ working in photography at this time, Johnston used her considerable status within the medium as a means of inspiring amateur female photographers to pursue the medium with the same seriousness as their male counterparts. This desire to encourage other women to take up photography is embodied in a series of essays Johnston wrote and published in The Ladies Home Journal, which was the magazine with the largest circulation in America at the time. Entitled ‘What a Woman can do with a Camera,’ the series represents an important step in the emancipation of women both as photographers and citizens, as it voices their emergence as significant artists within a changing