A hands-on touring reading room exhibition sharing a selection of the books showcased in What They Saw publication launched in May 2022 at the New York Public Library and will travel through 2025.
What They Saw Touring Reading Room Exhibition Schedule:
New York Public Library
Schwartzman Building @ 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
New York
19-21 May 2022
10×10 Photobooks and The Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photography have organized What They Saw—a hands-on reading room, a rare book reading room and a series of public events—to explore the diversity of photobooks created by women photographers from 1843–1999.
- Center for Research in the Humanities
Touchable books on view. Free and open to the public - Prints & Photos Study Room
Rare books on view. Free with advanced registration
Enter Enter: A Space for Books
Amsterdam
10 September-23 October 2022
A hands-on reading room selection of books from the publication accompanied by public programming at:
- Rijksmuseum Library (Amsterdam): Curator tour of rare books by women
Friday, 16 September 2022 at 5:30 pm
Free with advanced registration - Enter Enter Talk: What They Saw designer Ayumi Higuchi and co-editor Russet Lederman will discuss the project’s development from a design perspective.
Saturday, 17 September 2022
Boston Athenaeum
Boston
2-4 March 2023
A selection of over 100 touchable and rare books from the publication accompanied by public programming:
- Exploring Photobooks by Women: Panel Discussion
Thursday, 2 March 2023 at 6 pm - Spotlight Talks
Informal presentations on the books in the Reading Room Thursday, 2 March – Saturday, 4 March 2023
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sophía
Library and Documentation Center, Space D
Madrid
23 February – 7 June 2024
- Lo que ellas vieron: Fotolibros históricos realizados por mujeres, 1843-1999 (Spanish)
- What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843-1999 (English)
- What History: Encounters on Photobooks by Women: Public Talk
Thursday, 22 February 2024 (Spanish / English) - Exhibition Information Sheet (Spanish / English)
Getty Research Institute
Los Angeles
8 April – 11 May 2025
What They Saw, the latest project in the nonprofit 10×10 Photobooks’ ongoing series of reading rooms and publications on photobooks by marginalized communities, presents a global range of 200 photobooks by female photographers from 1843 to 1999. With the first photographically illustrated book self-published by British botanist Anna Atkins in 1843, women have consistently contributed to the rich history of photobooks. However, their contributions have not always been recognized. The What They Saw Reading Rooms showcase this history and share both historically significant and under-appreciated photobooks by women. Presenting a diverse geographic and ethnic selection, the photobooks included in the two reading room spaces interpret the concept of the photographically illustrated book in the broadest sense possible: classic bound books, portfolios, personal albums, unpublished books, zines and scrapbooks. Some of the books documented are well-known publications such as Anna Atkins’ Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843-1853), Germaine Krull’s Métal (1928) and Diane Arbus: An Aperture Monograph (1972), while other books may be relatively unknown, such as Varvara Stepanova’s Groznyi smekh. Okna Rosta (1932), Eslanda Cardozo Goode Robeson’s African Journey (1945), Fina Gómez Revenga’s Fotografías de Fina Gómez Revenga (1954) and Ruiko Yoshida’s Harlem: Black Angels (1974). The glaring gaps and omissions in current photobook history are apparent through this overview, particularly the lack of access, support, and funding for photobooks by non-Western women and women of color.
What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843-1999 is a follow up project to 10×10 Photobooks’ How We See: Photobooks by Women, which showcased contemporary photobooks by women (2000-2018) and began in 2018 at the New York Public Library with a tour to five other venues.
10×10 is grateful to the MUUS Collection for their generous support of the What They Saw publication. The MUUS Collection is an organization with a mission to make visible their photography collection and archives through exhibitions, scholarship, donations, licensing, and the printing of images and books.
The What They Saw Reading Rooms are supported by an anonymous donor, Evan Mirapaul and Grace Jones Richardson Trust.
