Harare Review of Books

Expected Publication Date: Mar. 7, 2023

Non-fiction.

I devoured this stunning collection of images from women and non-binary photographers.

Women Photograph was founded in 2017 by Daniella Zalcman, a Vietnamese-American documentary photographer, 2021 Catchlight Fellow, multiple grantee of the National Geographic Society and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, and fellow with the International Women’s Media Foundation. It is a nonprofit working to elevate the voices of women and nonbinary visual journalists. Zalcman wanted to create a database to connect women photographers and news outlets, as editors often said they did not know where to find them.

Because photojournalism is a window on our world, it is important to have diversity behind the lens. This book demonstrates how women and non-binary people will often see and document things, people and places that photographers who are not may not even notice. This is critical when one considers how history is written, and which voices are silent in archives. Projects like this book, and the Women Photograph database, are crucial correctives for historical narratives.

The book is divided into four sections, Identity, Place, Conflict, and Reclamation, each grouping photographs around those ideas. Many of these photographs are already famous, and have won awards. All are accompanied by important context from the photographer: I was struck more than once by my assumptions on looking at a picture, and then being confronted by my own biases on reading the accompanying write-up.

This book is a visit to a world-class photographic exhibition. Thank you to NetGalley and to Quarto Publishing GroupWhite Lion Publishing for access.

You can support independent bookshops, and my writing, by preordering it on Bookshop here.