Women Artists, photographed by Barbara Yoshida

“One Hundred Portraits: Women Artists,” American fine art photographer Barbara Yoshida presents a fascinating photographic survey of women artists through portraits that reveal a key aspect of each artist’s identity. Since 1990, Yoshida has travelled the world to document more than one hundred women in their studios and homes. Her diverse subjects, who range from art world luminaries to artists starting their careers, work in a variety of styles with no distinction between fine art and craft. Collectively, they can be seen as a community of artists that fearlessly pushes forward the boundaries of art making." (via)


Above: Louise Bourgeois, 28 February 1992

Above: Toshiko Takaezu, 17 October 1993

Above: Malado Camara Sidibeh, 22 November 2010

Above: Lynda Benglis, 21 November 1991

Above: Alicja Zebrowska, 24 May 2010

Above: Elizabeth Murray, 29 April 1992

Above: Hannah Wilke, 21 February 1991

Barbara Yoshida started taking photographs of women artists in the early 1990s when the Guerilla Girls drew attention to sexism in art, when female artists had difficulties to find recognition within galleries, museums and the public imagination. A great many of the women photographed by Yoshida were members of the Women's Action Coalition, an organisation founded in 1992 to fight discrimination against women in the art world (via).

"Given that Yoshida herself worked as a painter, printmaker, and sculptor for two decades before ever picking up a camera, her photographs of these women are not just acts of affirmation but also of solidarity. That comes out in the way she chose to photograph her subjects — not posing them stiffly, but letting the images evolve over conversations about art and life. Each resulting portrait is not merely a representation of the artist shown, but an encounter between two women leaning on and encouraging one another in a male-dominated world." Laura C. Mallonee

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
information and photographs by Barbara Yoshida via the marvellous Hyperallergic