Phaidon's New Book Skips Chronology and Hierarchy, Lists 250 Women Photographers Alphabetically Instead

In Carolle Bénitah's 2009 piece "Le Déguisement (The Disguise)," the surface of the photographic paper bears visible traces of stitched thread—an effect no editing software could replicate. The artist hand-sewed the thread directly into the 16 1/2 × 24 inch Archival Pigment Print. This work will appear as one page in Phaidon's forthcoming book, *Great Women Photographers*.

Set for release on October 14, 2026, the book marks the fourth installment in Phaidon's "Great Women" series, following previous volumes focused on painters, sculptors, and creators across the broader art world. *Great Women Photographers* features more than 250 photographers whose work spans 68 countries and nearly 200 years of photographic history. True to the series' format, entries are arranged alphabetically by name—disregarding chronology, geographic proximity, or any hierarchy between documentary and conceptual practice.

In the book's introduction, editor Fiona Rogers writes: "If 'greatness' has long been defined by visibility and how well one is remembered, then continuing to document and celebrate women's photographic practice isn't just relevant—it's essential." Each photographer's entry pairs newly written text by scholars with a selection of the artist's most representative images.

The preview images already hint at just how wide a spectrum this book aims to cover: Atong Atem's 2022 work "Our Neighbor Was a Witch" is a 39 3/8 × 59 1/16 inch Ilford smooth pearl print, limited to an edition of 3; Alex Prager's 2008 piece "Eve" is a 36 x 45 inch chromogenic print with the feel of a cinematic still; Simryn Gill's series "A Small Town at the Turn of the Century," shot between 1999 and 2000, takes a documentary approach; Gohar Dashti's 2008 "Untitled #5," from her series "Today's Life and War," uses staged scenes to explore everyday life amid conflict; and Pushpamala N.'s 2004 "The Native Types / Circus," from the series "Native Women of South India," is a 22 x 14 13/16 inch color photograph limited to an edition of 20, now held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Placed side by side, these works perfectly demonstrate the logic behind the book's alphabetical structure—staged compositions and documentary realism, colonial gazes reimagined and hand-stitched family memories, all sitting on the same plane, with none positioned above the rest.

*Great Women Photographers* is currently available for pre-order at the Colossal Shop, while its predecessor in the series, *Great Women Sculptors*, is already in stock.