Women Photographers and Feminist Aesthetics

Women Photographers and Feminist Aesthetics makes the case for a feminist aesthetics in photography by analysing key works of twenty-two women photographers through ten thematic chapters and includes the work of cis- and trans-woman photographers. Developing the argument that through aesthetic force emerges the truly political, Claire Raymond moves beyond polarization of the aesthetic and the cultural. Instead, photographic works are read for their subversive political and cultural force, as it emerges through the aesthetics of the image. This book makes use of in-depth readings of a small number of photographs, but covers expansively the history of photography, from nineteenth-century Europe to twenty-first century Africa and Asia. Women Photographers and Feminist Aesthetics puts forth original interpretations of well-known photographers such as Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, and Carrie Mae Weems, analysing their work through the rubric of gender, class, and race. Finally, this book pays close attention to the representation of indigenous North Americans in photography and contemporary Native American women photographers‘ response to this history. This book is ideal for students of Photography, Art History, Art and Visual Culture and Gender Studies, particularly those studying art and feminism, feminist art history, women artists, and women photographers.