Women Photographers 1853-2018

11 Oct 2025 - 15 Mar 2026
Level 1, Galleries 2, 3 & 4
Free

Women photographers 1853-2018 highlights the transformative impact of women artists on the history of photography.

Since its inception, the National Gallery's photography collection has reflected the vital place of women in the medium's history. Some of its earliest acquisitions were major works by women.

As a result, the National Gallery is uniquely placed to consider how photography has changed the worlds in which women live, and how women have changed photography. As the great modernist photographer Lucia Moholy wrote, 'Photography has not only changed the way we see the world but also how we see ourselves.'

For women artists, making photographs has always been an act of resistance. Photography has given women access to spaces of knowledge, artistic practices and technology from which they were previously excluded.

This exhibition features work spanning more than 160 years of women working with photography.

In the 1840s, pioneering English botanist Anna Atkins helped steward new levels of scientific accuracy in botanical illustration and natural history with her cyanotypes of algae. During the 1920s and 1930s, entrepreneurial women such as the Berlin-based photographer known by the pseudonym Yva ran successful photography studios that brought tremendous innovation to photography's place in fashion and advertising.

In the 1970s, women photographers inspired by feminism and environmentalism rendered photography personal, political and communal. In the 1980s and 1990s, First Nations artists such as Brenda L Croft and Fiona Foley began to reclaim a medium that had subjected their ancestors to colonial scrutiny.

Today, women like Gillian Wearing and Justine Varga are making work that tests the limits of photography and its relationship to the world.

Presenting highlights from First Nations, Australian and International collections, this exhibition explores the ways women artists have used photography to tell stories about themselves and other women. Their work has forged new ways of being in and seeing the world-whether negotiating its challenges or celebrating its beauty.

Women photographers 1853-2018 is a Know My Name project, the National Gallery initiative celebrating the work of all women artists to enhance understanding of their contribution to Australia's cultural life.

'I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them.'

Diane Arbus


Curators:
Anne O'Hehir, Curator, Photography
Magda Keaney, Head Curator, International Art
Shaune Lakin, Senior Curator, Photography




Time: 10am - 5pm daily



 National Gallery of Australia View Venue
 Parkes Place Canberra A.C.T. 2600 Map

→ nga.gov.au

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