The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is now hosting Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists from Helen Kornblum, an exhibition that presents 90 photographic works by female artists from the last 100 years. The exhibit will be on view from April 16 to October 2, 2022. Drawn exclusively from the Museum’s collection, thanks to a transformative gift of photographs from Helen Kornblum in 2021, the exhibition takes as a starting point the idea that the histories of feminism and photography have been intertwined.
Our Selves reexamines a host of topics, countering racial and gender invisibility, systemic racial injustice, and colonialism through various photographic practices, including portraiture, photojournalism, social documentary, advertising, avant-garde experimentation, and conceptual photography. Below are several images on display as part of the exhibition and you can also listen to audios about different works.
Claude Cahun (Lucy Schwob), M.R.M (Sex), c. 1929–30. Gelatin silver print, 6 × 4 in. (15.2 × 10.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Helen Kornblum in honor of Roxana Marcoci.
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Penmanship Class, 1899. Platinum print, 7 3/8 × 9 3/8 in. (18.7 × 23.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Helen Kornblum in honor of Roxana Marcoci.
Our Selves: Photographs by Women Artists from Helen Kornblum was organized by Roxana Marcoci, The David Dechman Senior Curator, with Dana Ostrander, Curatorial Assistant, and Caitlin Ryan, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Photography, MoMA.
The exhibit is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue that features more than 100 color and black-and-white photographs. A critical essay by curator Roxana Marcoci asks the question, “What is a Feminist Picture?” and a series of 12 focused essays by Dana
Ostrander, Caitlin Ryan, and Phil Taylor address a range of themes, from dance to ecology to perception. The catalogue offers both historical context and critical interpretation, exploring the myriad ways in which different photographic practices can be viewed when looking through a feminist lens.
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Image provided by MoMA