Opening 28 November 2025 at NGV International is a new exhibition featuring the works of more than 70 influential female photographers working between 1900 to 1975.
Two images from the up-coming exhibition at the NGV: Trude Fleischmann: The actress Sibylle Binder, Vienna, c. 1926; gelatin silver photograph, 21.9 x 16.0 cm; Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2022. © Estate of Trude Fleischman; Ponch Hawkes, No title (Summer night in the backyard at Falconer Street), c. 1975, printed 2018; gelatin silver photograph, 30.3 x 20.3 cm (image) 38.3 x 27.9 cm (sheet). Purchased NGV Foundation, 2018. © Ponch Hawkes.
The exhibition features more than 300 rare and innovative photographs, prints, postcards, photobooks and magazines from the NGV Collection – with 170+ recently acquired and 130+ on display for the very first time. Genres on display include portraiture, photojournalism, landscape photography, fashion photography and experimental avant-garde imagery, all recorded against the backdrop of significant social, political and cultural events – from Melbourne to Tokyo, Paris to Buenos Aires. From historic images of the suffrage movement at the turn of the twentieth century, through to the women’s liberation movement and beyond, the exhibition reveals how these artists have used key photographic styles to capture, reflect and challenge the world around them. This exhibition highlights the rich networks of exchange of information, ideas and support between many of these women across the world.
The exhibition showcases the work of prominent and leading figures of photography, such asDiane Arbus, Dora Maar, Lee Miller, Dorothea Lange and Olive Cotton, as well as drawing attention to lesser-known artists. Featured artists include Berenice Abbott, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Imogen Cunningham, Mikki Ferrill, Sue Ford, Christine Godden, Ponch Hawkes, Annemarie Heinrich, Ruth Hollick, Florence Henri, Kati Horna, Germaine Krull, Tina Modotti, Lucia Moholy, Tokiwa Toyoko, Francesca Woodman, Yamazawa Eiko, among many others.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated publication exploring the images, lives and stories of women photographers from the pivotal period of 1900–1975. The publication will feature new essays from NGV Curators and international contributors including leading American art historian, critic and curator Abigail Solomon-Godeau; Emeritus Professor at the ANU School of Art & Design Helen Ennis; World Press Photo lead curator Amanda Maddox; photographer and writer Carla Williams, and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum curator Yamada Yuri. Women Photographers 1900–1975 will be co-published with Hatje Cantz in Berlin.
This exhibition coincides with the fifty-year anniversary of the first International Women’s Year in 1975, as declared by the United Nations. Women Photographers 1900–1975: A Legacy of Light will be on display from 28 November 2025 – 3 May 2026 at NGV International, St Kilda Road, Melbourne. Entry fees apply. Tickets and information are available via the NGV website.
