The Women Who Shaped Street Photography

Before the 2007 auction of her negatives two years before her death, Vivian Maier was known only in her capacity as a nanny. Photos like Chicago (1961) prove that she was decades ahead of her time. © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy Maloof Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

Untitled 1/15 (1959) is another example of Maier’s prescience; that wallet could easily be an iPhone in a post on a street style account. © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy Maloof Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

It’s thanks to Lisette Model that Diane Arbus got her start. The then-up-and-comer was highly influenced by the aesthetic seen here in Woman with Veil, San Francisco, (1947). © The Lisette Model Foundation.

The late Austrian-American photographer never shied from getting experimental. While not immediately apparent, her many photos of reflections (such as this 1945 one) were examinations of American consumerism. © The Lisette Model Foundation.

The fact that Orkin’s photos are often perceived as staged is a testament to the late photographer’s knack for turning everyday scenes into what you may now occasionally recognize as dorm room décor. (Street Embrace, New York City, 1948-50. © Ruth Orkin Photo Archive.)

Orkin was fond of photographing outside the windows of her apartments, whether the one overlooking Central Park or the 88th St. one seen here in Main in Rain, New York (1952). © Ruth Orkin Photo Archive.

Mark grew so close to one of her Seattle subjects, Tiny (pictured here in 1983), that she tried to adopt her. © Mary Ellen Mark, Courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.

While many of her peers had their eyes fixated on high society in capitals like New York City, Jodi Bieber spent a full decade focused on youth living near Johannesburg, South Africa. Father and son trapeze act, Market Theatre Precinct, Newtown, c. 2012. © Jodi Bieber.

In 1943, Frances McLaughlin-Gill became the first woman in photography to sign a contract with Vogue. Images like Ann St. Marie (1961) that now seem like ordinary old-school fashion photography were groundbreaking at the time.