Firecrackers: Female Photographers Now

In 2011, Rogers (global development business manager, Magnum Photos) started the website Firecracker (firecracker.org) to showcase and support women photographers. A year later, a Firecracker annual grant was established to help fund the projects of female photographers. With coeditor and journalist Houghton, this book is a result of Rogers's work, which brings readers' attention to more than 30 practicing female photographers, each critically examining an aspect of contemporary culture through the camera lens. Issues addressed include conflict (Poulomi Basu, Anastasia Taylor-Lind), politics (Laura El-Tantawy, Newsha Tavakolian), gender and sexuality (Zanele Muholi, Lua Ribeira), the body (Haley Morris-Cafiero, Sanne De Wilde), and the deeply personal (Mariela Sancari, Chen Zhe). Many of the women have won major awards (Evgenia Arbugaeva, Corinna Kern), and many blur the boundaries of documentary and fine art photography (Bieke Depoorter, Regine Petersen). Each photographer gets a brief biography and an analysis of the included work, with at least five color images.