Have you ever heard of a male artist defined by the women in his life?

Leveling the playing field of gender equity in art continues to be an uphill battle. Katy Hessel is the Joan of Arc attempting to right this wrong. See her book, The Story of Art Without Men, and follow her Instagram, @thegreatwomenartists.

There are two things that I find especially perplexing in reference to this issue in the field of photography:

• Unlike other forms of fine art, women entered the field of photography at the same time as men.

• It feels awkward to push gender definitions in an increasingly non-binary world.

However, the fact remains that the majority of female-identifying artists heavily rely on gender-specific awards to both fund and amplify their work.

The 2022 Burns Halperin Reports are both sobering and infuriating:

Of 31 museums tracked between 2008 and 2022, work by female-identifying artists made for less than 15% of all exhibitions, less than 12% of all acquisitions, and horrifically, work by Black American artists hovers at just 2.2%.

Context matters. The fact is that it is a rare museum/gallery label that contextualizes a male artist in reference to the women in his life. In comparison, women artists rarely stand on their merit alone, and are systemically referenced in the art world as “the wife, the muse, the daughter, the fill-in-the-blank” to a prominent male artist in their life.

As Katy Hessel aptly states, “the power of art is to tell stories beyond the binaries of gender.”

Featured photos, in order from left to right: Martine Franck, Lee Miller, Lucia Moholy