30 For 30: Exhibition and Anger

To celebrate Women’s History Month, we’re featuring items from the PWP Archives* each day on this blog. In looking back, we see not only where we started, but how far photography, women, and the world have come since 1975.

Desktop publishing didn’t exist in 1975, so the roster for the FIT show Breadth of Vision: Portfolios of Women Photographers had to be mimeographed for distribution.

Mimeographed roster for the 1975 FIT show "Breadth of Vision"
Mimeographed roster for the 1975 FIT show “Breadth of Vision”

It was the largest exhibition of its kind at the time, and included photo luminaries like Ruth Orkin, Suzanne Opton, Mary Ellen Mark, Susan Meiselas, and Dianora Niccolini, who would become PWP’s first president.

Detail of the FIT show roster

Detail of the FIT show roster

Dismayed by the lack of press, Dannielle Hayes, one of the organizers, brought exhibitors together at ICP (then on Fifth Avenue) for a quick publicity campaign. Results included an article in the New York Herald Tribune (unfortunately under “Hobbies”), and a plan for the photographers to keep meeting. Women’s Lib was in full swing, and there was tremendous grassroots energy in the arts. Groups long excluded from exhibitions and representation were taking action for themselves. Some of the organizations founded in the 1970s include the A.I.R. Gallery, Soho Photo Gallery, and the Visual Studies Workshop (actually founded in 1969).

New York Herald Tribune article on the FIT exhibition

New York Herald Tribune article on the FIT exhibition

 

Invitation for the FIT show

Invitation for the FIT show

– Catherine Kirkpatrick

*The PWP Archives were acquired by the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, & Rare Book Library of Emory University

Links to all the 30 For 30 Women’s History Month blogs:
Help Me Please! Hopelessly Waiting…
Exhibition and Anger
Spreading the Word
Early Ads On Paper
Cards and Letters
A Lady, a Truck, a Singing Dog
Women of Vision
A Show of Their Own
Taking It To the Street
Sisters of Sister Cities
Sold!
Education and More
Face of a Changing City
Digital Enabling
Expanding Walls and Other Possibilities
A Wonderful Life–Lady Style
Branding–the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Great Change Sweeps In
PWP Goes Live!
Honoring the Upcoming
Continuity Through Change
Reaching Out
Eye a Woman Naked
Rapidly Multiplying Alternative Options
Women In the World, As Themselves
Kudos!
Friends Who Overcame and Inspired
Reversing the Gaze
Photography and More
Chicks Telling It Like It Is
Looking Back With Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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