Female in Focus: Has progress been made for gender equality in photography?

Published on British Journal of Photography Online

In 1985, feminist art collective the Guerilla Girls famously posed the question on a public billboard: “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum?” At the time, less than 5% of the artists in the Met were women. Meanwhile, 80% of the nude bodies depicted were... You guessed it. Women.

It’s no secret that women have been gravely underrepresented throughout art history. From literature through to painting, photography and beyond: since storytelling began, the masculine experience has consistently framed and filtered how we see the world. With the meteoric rise of popular feminism in recent years, one might assume things are changing. In the art world? Not so much. Almost three decades after their original campaign, the Guerilla Girls revisited the Met’s numbers: only 4% of artists in the Met’s modern art wing were women. 76% of the nudes were still women.

In 2019, Huck reported that work by women still only constitutes three to five per cent of major permanent collections across the US and Europe. And, as Daniella Zulcman – photographer and founder of Women Photograph – explains: “photography, the most modern of representative art forms, has done little to distinguish itself from the centuries of Botticelli, Klimt and Picasso that precede it”. 

To this day, gender disparity in the photography industry remains nothing short of staggering. 80% of photography graduates are women — yet women make up only 15% of professional photographers. These women photographers are earning, on average, 40% less than their male counterparts. On top of this, 8 out of 9 photography award winners are men. 

It was in light of glaring like these inequalities that, in 2019, 1854 Media launched its inaugural Female in Focus award: purposed to discover, promote and reward exceptional women-identifying and non-binary photographers around the world, whilst capitalising on 1854 Media’s global platform to help create the conditions for wider change. A year on, and Female in Focus remains as vital as ever. 

This is not to say there have not been shifts. In 2019, Les Rencontres d’Arles dedicated a section to women-led narratives after 340 industry specialists signed an open letter criticizing the festival’s paucity of women; gradually, more women-only collectives and galleries have been appearing, following in the footsteps of trailblazers before them. But gender disparity in photography remains deep-rooted and institutional. The cold, hard numbers have changed little: as we enter a new decade, still, an overwhelming minority of women are being commissioned, published and exhibited around the world. 

Naturally, the remarkable work we were able to shed light on through Female in Focus 2019 – alongside the incredible response it garnered – redoubled our commitment to growing the platform. In Priya Kambli’s winning series, Buttons for Eyes, she explored the migrant narrative and challenges of cross-cultural understanding, offering a much-needed personal perspective on the fragmentation of family, identity and culture inherent in the migrant experience. It is vital to note that women of colour find their narratives ripped from their grasp more acutely, perhaps, than any other demographic: one need only scratch the surface of a despairingly masculinised art history to find colonialism, racism and white supremacy inextricable from its canon. 

Our second series winner, Cosmic Drive by Katinka Schuett, explored the link between the insights of astrophysics, space programs and biology with the narratives of the science fiction genre. The implicit gendering of subject matter can often provide further obstacle for women photographers: of course, women telling stories of women is vital, but by no means should it stipulate the beginning and end of their contribution to the medium. As fifty per cent of the population, a woman’s perspective is vital on everything — and so we must do the work to amplify women in more masculinised cultural spaces. Schuett being an outstanding example.

Both Kambli and Schuett were flown to New York for the opening of the Female in Focus exhibition at United Photo Industries gallery in Brooklyn. Alongside Kambli and Schuett’s series, the show exhibited 20 winning single images from other exceptional women photographers around the world. The exhibition garnered international coverage and acclaim, and was extended due to popular demand. It is still on show. As of 130 JanuaryApril 2020, the call reopens for women-identifying and non-binary photographers of any level to submit their work. 

Like last year, one of the defining features of the award will be the lack of any strict theme. The winning images will share a subversion of the status quo – disrupting homogenous masculine tropes; reframing the world through the female gaze  – but otherwise, will vary significantly in style and subject matter. 

With the second edition of Female in Focus, 1854 Media will continue its commitment to elevating the careers of women photographers worldwide and fighting for a gender equal photography industry. 

If you are a woman-identifying or non-binary photographer with a story to tell, enter Female in Focus today. 

Applications close 10 March 2020 - 23:59 (UK Time)