Friday Inspiration: The Women Behind The Lens in Fashion Photography

Friday Inspiration: The Women Behind The Lens in Fashion Photography

With everything going on in the world, I want to be sure we’re celebrating Women’s History Month with a particular focus on honoring the unique perspectives of the women in the photo industry. This week we’ve chosen to focus on six women photographers who offer something new in the fashion and beauty photography community.

The female gaze explores different forms of femininity, sexuality, strength and beauty— something that can feel missed or overlooked by photographers who are men because of a history of oversexualizing and objectifying fashion models. While it’s largely understood that selling sex has and always will be a major part of the fashion industry, I often find myself questioning what we’re missing by reducing our models to sexual coat hangers as a means of bringing attention to the world’s best fashion designers. How might Vogue or Elle or Marie Claire look different if the majority of the images featured were captured by women? In recent years there have been some great conversations around the gender inequality of fashion photographers, but, like other photographic communities (e.g. sports and photojournalism), we still have a long way to go.

It is important to remember that fashion photographs by women do not exist as an act of subversion toward the male gaze. Instead, they are another lens through which we can examine the types of conversations society is having about the fashion industry, feminity, sexuality, and humanity in general.

Steph Wilson

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Another lost image of Laura in the Alps

A post shared by Steph Wilson (@stephwilsonshoots) on

Nadine Ijewere

Celeste Martearena

Lia Clay

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bitch, we said #intersectional !

A post shared by Lia Clay Miller (@liaclay) on

Senja Vild

Desiree Mattsson


Be sure to follow us on Instagram for stunning images from our members, advice from the pros and more. 

This week on our feed we’re celebrating Lindsay Adler, a renowned fashion photographer and educator who was recently named Rangefinder’s ‘Icon of the Year.’ Always happy to share her insights and experiences, Lindsay also joined us on Wednesday for an incredible live Q&A about color theory, post-processing and more.

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Caitlyn Edwards is the Senior Customer Marketing Manager at PhotoShelter. Passionate about visual storytelling and ethics, she covers photo news, events and offers educational tips.

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