Women's Camera Work

Judith Fryer Davidov is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the author of "The Faces of Eve: Women in the Nineteenth-Century American Novel "and "Felicitous Space: The Imaginative Constructions of Edith Wharton and Willa Cather."

"Dorothea Lange's renowned "Migrant Mother" is the point of departure for this generously illustrated and intelligently argued book ... The major contribution however is its gathering and juxtaposing of the work of a number of more or less well-known women photographers...Davidov presents them as a loose network rather than a movement and, in here close readings, attends to what is unique in their work as well as what they might have in common... Clearly packed with information of interest to students of photography and, indeed, of twentieth-century American culture."--American Studies, Vol. 34, 2000 "If "photographs are artifacts with a continuing life," Judith Fryer Davidov provides an acute reading of the ways in which the camera work of key female photographers construct histories that rethink linear models of male photographic influence, and that negotiate and represent otherness... The success of Women's Camera Work is, indeed, the scrupulous and sensitive consideration of the lives of both the photographer (as text) and the photographer (as practitioner) in a culture that has often marginalized both."--Journal of American Studies, Vol 33, 1999 "What a splendid achievement this book is. It is rich in texture, nuanced, fascinating - an outstanding work." - Miles Orvell, Temple University "Davidov is an eloquent and passionate reader of texts and images... She gives us a chance to think about a set of relationships among major American women photographers that few people know about." - Iris Tillman Hill, Duke University