The first glimmers of women’s suffrage emerged in the late 1800s, leading to the rise of feminism in the following years. Women were fed up with being treated like children and campaigned for their right to vote, to be treated equally to men, and to be able to work and earn money in jobs not typically reserved for women.

Women were often denied from the creative arts, despite the fact that mediums such as weaving and sewing have been specifically associated with women for centuries. When photography emerged as a new form of art and communication, it was harder for women to be taken seriously. Thus, it’s important to look back at the pioneering women who stood in the face of adversity and wielded their cameras.

Frances Benjamin Johnston was a seminal figure in the history of photography, although, as she unashamedly admitted, she was more interested in using the medium as a job to earn her financial freedom rather than as a creative outlet. Still, her photographs are beautiful, and during her career, she made many important contributions to the development of photography, as well as encouraging other women to engage in the medium.

Born in 1864, Johnston was lucky enough to be brought up around wealth and connection – her interest in photography was sparked by a family friend, George Eastman, who helmed the Kodak company. Yet, she used these privileges to her advantage, quickly capturing high-profile subjects like Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt with her lens and subsequently proving that women were more than capable of being independent and career-driven.

She embodied the New Woman, a feminist idea that advocated for women’s rights and autonomy. The New Woman studied at university, rode bicycles, wore more practical clothing, and secured jobs in high positions, which gave them economic independence.

Johnston even made a photograph called ‘The New Woman’, in which she exposed a leg from beneath her dress (although it is clothed) and held a cigarette. She hardly looks like a subservient object – she’s ready to get up and assert herself in the world, which she certainly did. The photographer mainly photographed people and architecture, and throughout her career, she also focused on taking pictures of African American communities and figures, working alongside the civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois.

Johnston clearly used her position as an acclaimed photographer to involve herself in important periods of American history, capturing a time that was rapidly changing for African American people, women, and Native Americans. Her series of photos taken at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute depicts black students engaging in education. The school was founded just a few decades prior in order to provide learning opportunities for previously enslaved men and women, and it continued to develop into an educational hub, which Johnston’s camera perfectly captured.

She also didn’t conform to heteronormative standards, engaging in a relationship with a woman named Mattie Hewitt. Johnston even photographed herself dressed as a man on one occasion, standing by a penny-farthing bicycle in trousers – which was not a common form of clothing for women at the time – while also wearing a masculine hat and a stick-on moustache. The photographer set out to do things differently, and in the process, she encouraged other women to join her, which she advocated for by setting up an exhibition of female photographers. She deserves to be remembered for her contributions to photography, especially during a time when it was considerably harder than it is today for women to be taken seriously.

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