First Women

2018 – a significant date for women – marking 100 years of Women’s Suffrage, but for one woman this landmark is far more than that. Renowned photographer Anita Corbin poses the question: How will women be remembered over the past 100 years? What have they achieved in the fields of Sport, Science, Politics, the Arts and Education? And who were these remarkable “first” women, what did they look like?

Many are familiar with the likenesses of Elizabeth 1, Jane Austen and even Boudicca, but none of us are sure that these are really a true representation of those amazing women. A photographic portrait gives the viewer a much clearer depiction of the outer being, but also provides many clues as to the person within, and when it is part of a collection it becomes something else again - a representation of the pioneering spirit of womankind that has infiltrated all aspects of our lives.

In the years leading up to 2018 Anita Corbin will shoot and collect iconic portraits of 21st century women who have achieved the landmark title “First Woman” across a range of fields. In 2018 Anita plans to launch the First Women travelling exhibition throughout the UK in celebration of 20th and 21st century women, creating a magnificent archive for our daughters and their future progeny. The exhibition will feature three types of photography: portraiture, documentary and archive and will be linked to an interactive website as well as the publication of a beautiful photographic book. Each unique portrait will feature extended captions and introductory essays.

“No man is an Island” and no woman truly acts alone and so complementing the key portraits will be an archive collection of photographs of women from the past 100 years showing women at work, rest and play and creating an historical context for the main portraits. Alongside this historical archive Anita plans to put together documentary images of ordinary women just being women – at home, at work and at leisure.

First Women is the project that Anita has waited all her life to create. Her passion was born out of work she began in the early eighties – her Visible Girls portfolio was symbolic of women’s new found freedom to be whoever they wanted to be – and fired by years spent working as a top female photographer for The Sunday Times and The Observer when she was often sent to cover “human interest” stories involving women. All this experience has culminated in Anita’s vision – the creation of a legacy for future generations of women to enable them to understand and appreciate the achievements of their forebears - and perhaps even to laugh incredulously that once upon a time women were regarded as second class citizens without a vote.

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