My intention is to enter an extremely private space without disrupting the delicate essence of communication between subject, their experience, and the viewer
Ever since its invention back in the 19th century, photography has been documenting life. At the same time, it focuses on inviting audiences to a rather subjective world, while trying to be taken seriously as an art form. Photography has always been considered a male-dominated profession, but luckily things are changing. Scholars, writers, bloggers, photography students, and enthusiasts have been giving due to the female pioneers of the field. Most of them were always standing and/or hiding in the shadows, oblivious to how much they could acclaim and accomplish. Arguably, the technique, concepts, and thematic female photographers use differ from those of male photographers. At a time when most women were convinced that their place was in the kitchen and certainly not in the dark room, there were those who were struggling to surpass their male counterparts and work towards gaining respect and recognition for their work.
Lili Almog (Israeli photographer, 1961-) emigrated to the United States in the mid-1980s and began her career as a photojournalist for several international news publications focusing primarily on fashion and portraiture. Her artistic focus is on revealing representations of the feminine body and psyche to portray the state of spiritual and cultural identity among women influenced by Western culture. After graduating from the School of Visual Arts in the 1990s, Almog continued to develop her own vision, which has taken her into women's private spaces (Bed Sequence), cloistered nuns in remote Carmelite monasteries (Perfect Intimacy), and minoritized women in rural China (The Other Half of the Sky), where she sensitively captured women in moments of solitude and introspection. Other projects (Between Presence and Absence and Down to Earth) engage the environment and capture the traces of human activity through photography, sculpture, and video. Lili has been exhibited widely, with solo shows at several international venues including The Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Emmanuel Walderdoff Gallery, Photographers' Place, UK, The Alternative Museum, New York, Griffin Museum of Photography, Boston, Museet for Fotokunst, Ffotogallery, UK, Prague House of Photography, and Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art. Almog's photographs are included in permanent collections at The Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, Harvard Art Museums, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Art Museum, Lexington, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Milwaukee Art Museum, and numerous private collections. In her latest book Betweenness - published just a few months ago - Almog raises questions about freedom and faith, and how those truths can coexist in modernity. The photographer delivers an unprecedented portrayal of the symbol of head coverings, which, in the political milieu of women's rights globally, are still very much in fashion. Lili Almog has built a celebrated photography career and is renowned for her intimate spiritual portraits of women's cultural identities around the world. She utilizes a variety of photographic means - portraiture, landscape, and video camera - as testimonial recorders, to emphasize the individuality of her subjects, their enduring dignity, their sense of self-worth, and their traditional values.
My images combine elements of history, social class, anthropology and personal experience in surroundings that have timely significance.
We will continue talking about female names that left their mark on photography and about contemporary female photographers who are still to emerge. There are a lot of female photographers out there deserving of praise and we can only hope to cover as many of them as we can. Please, follow this space to find out more.
