Women in Photography
Over the course of 2024 a momentum is building - Empowering women in photography of all genres is becoming at the forefront of the photography community.
Unfortunately for many years females have been vastly underrepresented in the photography industry. Visibility of females in photography is on the increase and a rise in community groups are leading the way by supporting & showcasing the talent of women in photography.
Earlier this year over the summer months we were proud to be part of the Women Photographers UK Team, an Instagram & Facebook Page created to support & promote female photographers. Since then other community pages were set up including Women Photographers Canada by Viktoria Haack & Fiona Mclean & Women Photographers US by Anna Moon, both of which share inspirational female photographers work. You may also be interested in - In focus women, created by Sarina Jackson & Steph Vella, one of the original community groups dedicated to inspiring others.
This blog post isn’t intended to be negative or a criticism in any way but to look at some of the facts and reasons why females in landscape & nature photography are still vastly under represented. There are very few female Youtubers & Podcasters for example, still very few female brand ambassadors and still very few women who are recognised in Landscape Photography Competitions. The blog post is intended to explore some of the reasons why this may be and what efforts are being done to improve the balance.
What we found of particular interest was a survey released from Women Photographers Canada who took the initiative to delve deeper in gaining an understanding of what barriers are involved in heading out with the camera, entering photography competitions, learning & development and much more. The survey was designed for their female audience but also open to both male & female photographers to understand the differences in approaches & to find ways to support what could be done to improve this.
All credit given on information provided - Women Photographers Canada, survey initiated in June 2024
Finding from the survey - Over 400 responses - 75% of responses were completed by women, with the majority being involved with photography for at least five years.
The top barrier to overall participation in photography was not having someone to go out with, the second barrier with 41.6% of respondents was concerns around safety, 95% of those were women.
Both myself and Max completed the survey, we thought the initiative was a great way of hearing from women in particular and proactive in that they were also asking for thoughts on what could be done to increase the representation and participation of women in landscape, nature & wildlife photography. We’re both very lucky & fortunate in that we share a passion for photography & videography and head out on a very regular basis together. I have always said that if Max wasn’t as supportive or had no interest in photography that i probably wouldn’t head out at sunrise or at sunset as i too wouldn’t feel comfortable.
After completing the survey and discussing the barriers between ourselves it was interesting to then see the results start to unfold via their Instagram Page, in particular their post on the 9th August with regards to the top barriers.. When the results in relation to the top two barriers were shared we wanted to help in whatever way we could and felt sad to see the facts in black & white. Photography is such a huge creative outlet, a release from the everyday, a positive hobby for wellbeing, alleviating stress and mental health and also a great way to keep active both physically and mentally.
We felt inspired by the survey and wanted to do something to support, we decided to launch Photography Buddy on our Website & Facebook page in mid August 2024, our way of trying to give back to the photography community, it just didn’t seem right that people were reluctant to go out and enjoy photography alongside the benefits it provides because they had nobody to go with . Photography Buddy was designed to literally just have someone to go out with, share knowledge on locations here in the Outer Hebrides and also to provide people with an opportunity to experience the northern lights when solar activity occurs. We didn’t feel it was right to exclude males from this opportunity as there are still a percentage who would welcome a buddy to head out with, this could be safety, health concerns or any number of reasons.
What is fantastic to see is that others are now taking a similar initiative with Photography Buddy, Women Photographers UK in October ran with the idea of female photography buddy and are now providing the service solely to females in photography. Our belief is that the more people who provide a photography service to enable others to enjoy creativity the better. The more women who put themselves out there to support & encourage others can only be beneficial to the photography community. If we can go someway in overcoming the top two barriers then surely this would support with more women taking up landscape & nature photography. On another note, sadly there aren’t enough women who lead the way with photography services especially in the Landscape genre, very few women from the UK lead workshops or 1-2-1 tuition sessions…….It would be great to see more.
Other findings from the survey
Learning methods - Observing other photographers was the leading method for women in learning photography techniques and skills 71.3% followed by YouTube 68.6%, online courses 63.5% and learning from friends 61.3% Males responded as YouTube being their preferred learning 81.9% followed by observing other photographers 74.7%
Being a self taught photographer i can relate to YouTube as being a fountain of information in gaining an understanding of the technical side to photography. This does require lots of time spent watching the “right” video to learn and can be frustrating especially if there are multiple videos on “how to” if they each have a different approach. I would also say that it could depend on your preferred learning style, visual, audio or kinaesthetic (hands on) Practicing and keep practicing is what cemented the learning process for me, not being disheartened with unfavorable results is what kept me interested and seeing self improvement was my motivation.
In fairness what is difficult from a ‘YouTubers’ perspective is not knowing who your audience is and what your audience is wanting to gain from watching the video, I was very conscious of not wanting to sound patronising and instead chose to share the experience with a hope that we might encourage someone or provide something to take away from the video.
In summary - We believe that the top barriers are linked with why females are under represented in Landscape, Nature and Wildlife Photography. If you have nobody to go out with or don’t feel safe/comfortable and this prevents you from heading out, opportunities to practice are limited or non existent, opportunities to improve also limited, the chance of creating a special photograph that you are proud of, enough to enter a photography competition are limited. We are also well aware that the barriers are difficult to overcome and that there could also be many other barriers involved. It isn’t easy to put your head above the parapet, there is a growing momentum that we are proud to be part of, the more women who become involved, find a passion for photography and support each other will only help to improve the balance.
We would love to encourage you to join one of the community groups, there are now more & more to chose from. SheClicks for example has a very interactive Facebook page with virtual coffee mornings, meet ups and so much more, find someone local to share the passion with. Instagram has a growing number of female communities to share inspiration and promote female photographers.
We are both delighted to be part of the growing momentum & have launched L.E.W.I.S Photography - Lets Encourage Women In Seascape Photography or WISP for short :) This is where our passion lies and where we believe that we can make a difference. Our Instagram community dedicated to women in seascape photography.
We are proud to continue with our supportive ethos for women in photography.
Adele & Max