Corrine Day

1962 - 2010

Photographer of the Waif, the Heroin Chic, the bare-faced model.

You will know her for those first images of Kate Moss.

But I like the light, the colours, the ratty hair and frightening spine of this photograph that somehow comment on the fallacy of the fashion world: the glamour is ripped open to reveal the structure that supports it.

Eve Arnold (Magnum Women No.1)

'If a photographer cares about the people before the lens and is compassionate, much is given. It is the photographer, not the camera, that is the instrument.' -Eve Arnold

Born: 1912, USA

Joined Magnum: 1951

Full member of Magnum: 1956

Bar girl in a brothel in the red light district, Havana, Cuba. 1954

US actress Marilyn Monroe on the Nevada Desert going over her lines for a difficult scene she is about to play with Clarke Gable in the film The Misfits by John Huston. 1960

Malcolm X collecting money for the Black Muslims, Washington D.C. 1960

The Queen on tour, Cheshire, UK. 1968

A woman wearing a veil, the colour of which indicates her tribe, Cairo, Egypt. 1970

Horse training for the militia, Inner Mongolia. 1979

Magnum

'Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.' -Henri Cartier-Bresson

Magnum meeting, Paris, 1957

There's an amazing exhibition about Magnum Photos and the 'New Role of Photography' at the C/O in Berlin. Magnum is a photography cooperative, owned by its photographer-members, that 'chronicle the world and interpret its peoples, events, issues, and personalities'. Magnum was started by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David "Chim" Seymour, George Rodger and William Vandivert in 1947.

The exhibition mainly focusses on the amazing photographs of its founding members, but it also displays other and more recent Magnum members. What struck me was that there was not a single woman photographer within this exhibition. As you can see in the photograph above, in 1957 there were four women in Magnum and there continues to be female Magnum members to this day. Where were they?

Eve Arnold

Olivia Arthur

Martine Franck

Christina Garcia Rodero

Inge Morath

Alessandra Sanguinetti

Lise Sarfati

Marilyn Silverstone

My next few posts will highlight the work of these women.

[I should say that at the Berlinische Galerie there was a fantastic exhibition of women photographers of the Weimar Republic, with Marianne Breslauer as the main draw.]

Elles at the Pompidou

They say it's worse in Europe.

I have just returned from Paris.

They have women artists on show there!

The Pompidou Centre has dedicated an entire floor (and it is a large floor) to the women in its collection. See the website here for more.

By no means does it mean that this should be your only dose of female artists in the canon, but it's a start.

Sweet Harmonies

Marianne Breslauer

Documenting the New Women of the Weimar Republic.

Shorter hair and hems.

Access to the city and workplace.

Incomes.

Sexual liberation.

A new level of (nearing) gender equality.

Wanda Jackson

The Queen of Rockabilly, ladies and gentlemen.

Be Prepared... The Girl Guides are on the march!

The Girl Guides are launching a petition to have airbrushed photos labelled as such. These girls and young women no longer want to only see and aspire to unnaturally 'perfect' images of women. Body confidence and self esteem is at a low (with 50% of a survey of over 1000 girls aged between 16 to 21 stating they would consider surgery to change their looks) and they want to change that. Their petition will be online tomorrow, so sign up on their website here.

If the Girl Guides was this proactive when I was in them I wouldn't have led a strike and been asked to leave!

Suso

Suso Cecchi D'Amico

1914-2010

She suggested that the father tries to steal a bike in The Bicycle Thieves.

She made Audrey Hepburn's character sleep in Gregory Peck's character's bed and wear his pyjamas in Roman Holiday.

Suso saw herself as 'just an artisan, the author is the director', but the stories from Cinecitta (and Hollywood) wouldn't have been the same withoutout her touch.