What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843–1999 examines how women have used the book since photography’s earliest decades. Edited by Russet Lederman and Olga Yatskevich, it places familiar works beside publications that have received far less attention. The historical range begins with Anna Atkins’s cyanotypes and extends to the end of the twentieth century. Rather than treating a handful of established names as exceptions, the project asks how the history of photographic publishing changes when women’s books become its organising subject.
Its definition of a photobook is deliberately expansive. Bound publications appear alongside portfolios, personal albums, unpublished books, zines and scrapbooks. These forms bring different kinds of access, circulation and authorship into view. The editors also address the unequal opportunities available to non-Western women and women of colour: the absence of a book from an established history may reflect inadequate support, funding or access rather than an absence of photographic work.
Published by 10×10 Photobooks in 2021, the volume extends the organisation’s earlier exploration of contemporary women’s photobooks into a historical survey. Its 352 pages contain 672 images, with design by Ayumi Higuchi and a softbound, sewn construction with dust jacket. The publication accompanies a travelling reading-room project, connecting the reference volume with opportunities to encounter the books themselves. This relationship between reproductions, contextual writing and physical access is central to its educational purpose.
For collectors, the book offers both a reference and a way to reconsider the boundaries of a collection. Attention to albums and modest publications broadens the question of what deserves preservation, while the historical span makes connections across practices that are usually studied separately. Its 2021 Paris Photo–Aperture Photography Catalogue of the Year award recognises a project whose lasting interest lies in opening photographic book history to further research.
