P H O T O G R A P H Y ! ! ? a blokey thing??

[Sheetshooter]

In the brief time that iHave been enjoying the company of this merry throng I don't know if I can be certain that there is any other girl in our midst then Deb of the quick wit and trafic sign. I am sure that there are others, I just have too little experience to know who they are.

But then, if female photographers were not so much of a minority hee I might be aware of many more.

My point is this: virtually since its invention women have found a place at the forefront of photography. Perhaps not in their droves, but very prominent, anyway.

Julia Margaret-Cameron
Gertrude Käsebier
Dorothea Laing
Margeret Bourke-White
Imogen Cunningham
Tina Madotti
Lee Miller
Olive Cotton
Sarah Moon
Sally Mann
&
Ruth Bernhadt

to name just a few.

But where are the women photographers of the DSLRUsers group? Is it that the female mind is more focussed on the image and less centred around the kit, thereby making the name of DSLR or D70 unappealing to them? Are they made feel unwelcome by outburst like we have seen?

Gee, I'd like to see more join the party. At present there is a strong feeling that we blokes are stood standing around the keg spinning yarns and checking each other's kit. Maybe it more that THAT is not a girlie thing!

Cheers,

[wendellt]

Sheetshooter
there are a few

Stormygirl
Byron
Nikon fan
Belle
Famish
Nicole

and many more i just can't think of now

Actually this subject reminds me of something

There was great Rolls Royce print ad i came across years ago

It had a tight crop of the rolls royce brand statue on the hood of the car and the windshield in the background with a man behind it

the copy read:

"In front of every great man there is a lady"
or words to that effect

hinting the fact that the rolls royce brand statue is of a lady
and she always comes first.

I think most females like the canon camera's better than the Nikons which is more appealing for men.

[Sheetshooter]

That's great, thanks Wendell,

I'll keep an eye out for them. It is hard to tell with some of the nicknames I guess.

[wendellt]

That's great, thanks Wendell,


I'll keep an eye out for them. It is hard to tell with some of the nicknames I guess.

Yeah i mistook member 'embi' for the female variety, till he set the record straight, he's actually a talented reportage photographer of the male breed

I guees a name like Nikon Girl could also be deceiving.

[wendellt]

Sheetshooter you forgot to mention Australia's foremost female photographer

TRACEY MOFFATT

[Sheetshooter]

I figure that your weekend job might bring you into contact with the likes of Cindy Sherman, Tracey Moffatt and Rosemary Laing.

I hold firmly that the addition or subtraction of a Y chromosome has a great influence on visual narrative skills. The FSA collection of photos in the Library Of Congress in the USofA has more Dorothea laing pictures than all the male photographers' works collectively. And that includes the likes of my hero Walker Evans.

I realise that my comments might be seen by some as sexist, but I believe that they are sexist in a positive way. It is not my aim to offend or irritate.

Cheers,

[wendellt]

I figure that your weekend job might bring you into contact with the likes of Cindy Sherman, Tracey Moffatt and Rosemary Laing.

I hold firmly that the addition or subtraction of a Y chromosome has a great influence on visual narrative skills. The FSA collection of photos in the Library Of Congress in the USofA has more Dorothea laing pictures than all the male photographers' works collectively. And that includes the likes of my hero Walker Evans.

I realise that my comments might be seen by some as sexist, but I believe that they are sexist in a positive way. It is not my aim to offend or irritate.

Cheers,

Ah ignorance is bliss apqrt from the female photographers represented by Roslyn Oxley9 gallery from which i must add: 'Anne Zahalka' and 'Simryn Gill'

I have not been following Rosemary Laing's work, yes strike me down.

I think females are more creative on the whole, unlike us blokes they can multitask with such ease which a vital part of creativity

[Onyx]

While the passion/art/discipline of photography has no doubt a wide female base, I believe the discussion of photography and especially in the online form could be a male thing.

[spartikus]

When I was in high school, doing Photography as a subject was considered a bit "girly", but most of my friends that I go out and shoot with now are male... go figure :/

[Nnnnsic]

I think that a person is a person is a person.

I know a lot of males that aren't particularly creative and I know a lot of females that have the same lack of creativity within their bodies.

I do, however, believe that like most jobs, men took up photography earlier than women did and thus we don't have many female pioneers in the photographic field.

That's not to say that women haven't pioneered some elements of photography.

I think both sexes are on par. It's the individual person that makes the difference.

And the list should continue for some prominent photographers, hmm?:

Annie Leibovitz
Veronique Vial
Natacha Merritt
Leni Riefenstahl
Nan Goldin
Diane Arbus
Barbara Kruger

And wendell, while I don't particularly like many of the Oxley artists, Simryn Gill hasn't been represented for a while, but the other female photographers represented there include Destiny Deacon, Julie Rrap, Simone Mangos, and formerly Fiona Foley.

I personally don't consider Tracey Moffatt the forefront of Australian female photographers as she tends not to do most of her work herself.

[kipper]

Sheetshooter, there is also Marvin from SA.

[gstark]

That's great, thanks Wendell,

I'll keep an eye out for them. It is hard to tell with some of the nicknames I guess.

It is, but the females here turn in work that is exceptionally classy.

Like you, I would like to see a greater level of female participation, but while it might be the kit issue, I suspect it's more related to being a computer issue, where females are, as a general rule, far less likely to become involved in online forums such as this.

This is actually echoed throughout the DP industry, where the ration of high level female technicians is probably not too disimilar than the ratio or females to males here.

[rjlhughes]

Someone analysed Blogwise recently and found

male: 14548
female: 4390
neither: 5908

That’s right. Out of the 18,938 names they could identify, 76.8% of them are male and only 23.2% female.

Flickr certainly has a very strong component of women, (as well as strong women) who use it as an outlet for their creative photographs.

It 'feels' like its a lot more than 25% female. And the correspondence between women about their pictures is very strong, too.

Certainly there are many women photographers active in Sydney, and contributing to the Sydney groups on Flickr.

DrJoanne and her contact list (under profile) is a good place to start looking if you're interested in the international contingent.

[Greg B]

I think that blokes like the equipment side of photography - even though we occasionally pretend it is only about the art. Women, I think, are generally less excited by the tools of photography (I say generally, there are of course exceptions)

When we were 100 members old, I started a thread suggesting we didn't have any female members - I was wrong, there were a couple.

I would like to think that women who did want to join in the forum could do so without having to be concerned about any unpleasantness. And I am happy to say that is pretty much been the case - the relatively small amount of idiot behaviour we have seen has had nothing to do with gender issues.

[petermmc]

Sheetshooter

I think you have touched on an interesting point here. I am still not sure why you want to identify females. I think that the idea of pseudonyms or usernames helps this forum focus on the ball (ie taking better photos and understanding the technology) rather than the 'man' or 'woman.'

Having said that, some men I know do have an incredible passion for gadgets and equipment to the point of absolute obsession about posession. I am thinking of the garages and the occupiers of them in my street. Also, most of the comments about 'lens lust' on this forum seem to come from men.

What I want to know is how many other short bald men are out there???

Regs

Peter Mc

[rjlhughes]

Greg,

I've hesitated for a while before asking this - but is there any reason your quote is about testicles and not ovaries?

[Greg B]

Greg,

I've hesitated for a while before asking this - but is there any reason your quote is about testicles and not ovaries?

I am glad you have hesitated no longer Bob.

I saw the statement elsewhere, and have reproduced it here. So I guess we would need to question the original author. The addition of the word "approximately" is my work, however, and followed on from a Melbourne meet where a few members pointed out that the original statement was not absolutely correct, and this was not consistent with my annoying tendency to be a pedant.

The addition of "approximately" resolved that issue, but the testicle/ovary question remains. I will amend my sig again to accomodate.

[sirhc55]

Peter Mc - Danny DeVito

[rjlhughes]

Greg,

Now that's beautifully put! Very inclusive!

(My comment wasn't so much about pedantry as about perceived blokie-ness of course!)

When Gareth Powell was starting the magazine that ended up being called Pol, he joked that the perfect name for a woman's periodical was Ova.

[petermmc]

Peter Mc - Danny DeVito

You've met me!

[Sheetshooter]

Petermmc,

I don't think it is so much a matter of identifying the females as sensing their presence.

[Greg B]

Sheetshooter

I think you have touched on an interesting point here. I am still not sure why you want to identify females............

Clearly, we won't be getting you to organise the strippers.

[petermmc]

Petermmc,

I don't think it is so much a matter of identifying the females as sensing their presence.

What is the presence that you want sensed? I think I know what you mean but I am not sure. Perhaps my question should be. "What is the difference in the presence of female rather than male?" Dp you have examples? Does it have to do the images or the, dare I say it, feeling or attitudes?

Maybe just men have more time to spend on forums...ah!!! did I say that? PS I do agree with you that we need more female support on this forum and that if we are intimidating or sexist we should remedy this. The problem is that we may not know that we are.

Peter Mc

[rjlhughes]

Peter,

excellently observed.

[petermmc]

Sheetshooter

I think you have touched on an interesting point here. I am still not sure why you want to identify females............

Clearly, we won't be getting you to organise the strippers.

Greg

I was trying to get the topic back on some kind of track away from testicles and ovaries. (not that I have anything for or against them in a political sense) At least you didn't specify the gender of the strippers.

Peter Mc

[Sheetshooter]

Petermmc,

I guess sense and sensibility go pretty much hand in hand here. As anybody who has noted what I choose to comment on and the nature of those comments, I am really ONLY concerned with images. Call me a fanatic, but that's how I am - the picture expresses far more to me about feelings and attiude and in far more concise and unaffected terms than the written word is capable of.

I neither believe that women are the same us us blokes, nor would I want them to be just as I don't expect you to be me or Bob, for that matter.

Now, I'll stick my head right up on the wall to be mistaken for a football and add that by far the most appealing pictures produced by men to my eye are those with sensitivity and concern where the man has obviously been in touch with his more feminie perspectives. (Please, no flame war on that: I know it is something of a sweeping statement but words fail me in expressing it more diligently within reasonable space.

Cheers,

[rjlhughes]

To which I would add that it's in portraiture that I most often get a sense of a picture of the photographer in the face of the subject.

[petermmc]

Sheetshooter

I like your response. So in essence the call for more female presence is more about 'feeling' and 'female perspective' than physical participation in the forum. Is there really a female perspective? I question this.

Mind you my only two posts have been 'War hammer dude' and a shot of the Port Kembla coke ovens. Neither could have been accused of having feeling or a female perspective.

Yeah I give up..you're right.

Regs

Peter Mc

[Sheetshooter]

Peter,

The subject matter is possibly of less concern than the treatment. Margaret Bourke-White is a case in point. She was a highly successful commercial photographer who documented much of heavy industry in the war effort of the USofA in the lead up to WWII.

I envy the socks of those with access to the likes of coke ovens, blast furnaces and the like. I have a mate who was retrenched from BHP in Newcastle and he got some access briefly for shots for posterity, but nowhere near enough.

I guess I digress a little to say by contast that when the Port at Grazia Magheri was being dismantled they commissioned 12 international art photographers to document their personal interpretations of the event. Oh that we had such opportunities here. You might also find Ferit Kuyas' Industrial Interiors interesting.

Cheers,

[Marvin]

Well, speaking from a female "perspective", I am more of a gadget person who has lens lust and many of my friends think I have penis envy with my long lens! I don't have any female friends who are "into" photography - most of them like taking happy snaps but not "making" photos. I go out and take pictures with several male friends. But, I also liked the fact that nobody knew I was a girl when I first joined (not sure why though - I guess that it was the first forum I have really participated in and there was a bit of anonymity involved). I don't have the artistic eye that some women have, but I really wish I did. And I know more about computers than most of the blokes I know. In fact, perhaps I should have been born a man.
Off for my change now.......