UNDEREXPOSED: WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS FROM THE HIGH MUSEUM

For nearly all of photography’s 180-year history, women have shaped the development of the art form and experimented with every aspect of the medium. Conceived in conjunction with the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women’s suffrage, this exhibition showcases more than one hundred photographs from the High’s collection, and charts the medium’s history from the dawn of the modern period to the present through the work of women photographers. Organized roughly chronologically, each section emphasizes a distinct arena in which women contributed and often led the way, as pioneers of the medium in its early days; as modernists exploring abstraction, light, and form; as professional photographers working in photojournalism, advertising, and documentary modes; as avid experimenters and tinkerers with photographic processes; as politically engaged actors using the medium to address contemporary concerns; and as individuals exploring and often challenging the social constructions of gender, sexuality, and identity in the twentieth century and the contemporary moment.

Curator: Sarah Kennel and Maria L. Kelly