May 2021: Author Dr. Nicole Hudgins Will Discuss Her New Book: The Gender of Photography

Author Nicole Hudgins and The Gender of Photography
Author Nicole Hudgins and The Gender of Photography

PHSNE’s May 2021 Zoom meeting will host Dr. Nicole Hudgins, associate professor of history and art history at the University of Baltimore (UB) and author of The Gender of Photography: How Masculine and Feminine Values Shaped the History of Nineteenth-Century Photography. Her presentation will begin at 7:30 PM EDT on Sunday, May 2, 2021.

Watch Nicole Hudgin’s Zoom presentation at PHSNE Virtual-Meetings on YouTube

It would be unthinkable now to omit early female pioneers from any survey of photography’s history in the Western world. Yet for many years the gendered language of American, British and French photographic literature made it appear that women’s interactions with early photography did not count as significant contributions. Using photo journals, cartoons, art criticism, novels, and Victorian career guides, The Gender of Photography shows why and how early photographic institutions insisted on masculine values and authority, and how women engaged with photography despite that dominant trend.

Self-portrait by Antoine Samuel Adam Salomon as a Philosopher (c. 1870), Wikimedia Commons

Self-portrait by Antoine Samuel Adam Salomon as a Philosopher (c. 1870), Wikimedia Commons

Focusing on the period before 1890, when most women in the West had yet to develop the self-assurance that would lead to broader recognition of the value of their work, this study probes the mechanisms by which exclusion took place and explores how women practiced photography anyway, both as amateurs and professionals. The Gender of Photography does not simply challenge the marginalization of women’s work in the early history of photography. It goes further, to offer a way of recognizing both the “femininity” and the “masculinity” of photography, arguing that both ways of thinking about the medium have equal importance. Several chapters focus on what is called (or not called) men’s photography and public discourse during the same period.

The book contains nearly 100 illustrations and an index that includes all the names of pre-1900 women who used the camera or photographs in their work and who came to Hudgins’ attention during research. It is essential reading for students and scholars of photography, history and gender studies.

Hudgins has published several articles on the history of photography, and her first book, Hold Still, Madame: Wartime Gender and the Photography of Women in France during the Great War, is an open-access volume in the collection of St. Andrews University’s Centre for French History and Culture. She is currently researching a digital photo history project.

Additional biographical information on Nicole Hudgins can be found in the University faculty directory.

The Gender of Photography is available on Amazon and direct from the publisher Routledge in paperback.

 

You May Also Be Interested In:

Linhof Technika 70 & Press 70

The Linhof Technika 70 “is an exceptional, beautifully-made, and very expensive combination of the rollfilm camera and the technical camera.” (Collecting and Using Classic Cameras, Ivor Matanle, 1986, p.10) “Designed for news, fashion, sports and press photography,” the camera “seems

The completed DIY Ur-Leica

Building a DIY Ur-Leica Replica

The December 2021 issue of Snap Shots featured an article about the Ur-Leica. Now PHSNE member Mark Kronquist has shared a story about building his own DIY Ur replica (above). “I have been using Leicas since my college days. In

The Olympus Pen F: Then and Now

Introduced in 1963, the Olympus Pen F* was a small, beautifully designed camera that achieved rapid market success. “The concept of a camera that could be carried and used as easily as a writing instrument was the inspiration for its

To the Dealers, Attendees, PHSNE Staff, Volunteers and the NNHS: 

THANK YOU!

You made PHOTOGRAPHICA 90 the best EVER!

Our 50th Anniversary Year Celebration Will Continue Throughout 2023

PHSNE May Meeting: Bernie Zelitch “Discovers” Lowell Photographer Annie Powell

Sunday, May 7, 2023 7:30PM on Zoom


June Meeting: PEM Curator Stephanie Tung

Sunday, June 4, 2023 at 7:30PM on Zoom

Give Us Your Feedback on Photographica 90

Use the Contact Form


Support PHSNE on eBay 

Visit seller Mass495 for deals from PHSNE


Become a PHSNE Member

Our members bring their curiosity, enthusiasm, and knowledge to bear on every aspect of photo history, from the earliest experiments to the present day—and tomorrow. We welcome your participation and support of our society. Join PHSNE today!
Your membership includes:
    • The New England Journal of Photographic History
    • 10 Issues of snap shots newsletters
    • Monthly meetings online and in-person
    • Informative presentations
    • Periodic field trips & vintage camera shoots
    • Free admission to PHSNE’s Photographica show & auction

PHSNE

Bulletin Board

To the Dealers, Attendees, PHSNE Staff, Volunteers and the NNHS: 

THANK YOU!

You made PHOTOGRAPHICA 90 the best EVER!

Our 50th Anniversary Year Celebration Will Continue Throughout 2023

PHSNE May Meeting: Bernie Zelitch “Discovers” Lowell Photographer Annie Powell

Sunday, May 7, 2023 7:30PM on Zoom


June Meeting: PEM Curator Stephanie Tung

Sunday, June 4, 2023 at 7:30PM on Zoom

Give Us Your Feedback on Photographica 90

Use the Contact Form


Support PHSNE on eBay 

Visit seller Mass495 for deals from PHSNE