We assume a world with a boundless appetite for images, in which people, women and men, are eager to surrender themselves to the camera, but it is worth recalling that there are parts of the world where to be photographed is something off-limits to women - in a few countries where men have been mobilised for a veritable war against women, women scarcely appear at all. The imperial rights of the camera - to gaze at, to record, to exhibit anyone, anything - are an exemplary feature of modern life, as is the emancipation of women.
This collection encompasses a broad spectrum of subjects: a rap artist, an astronaut, two Supreme Court justices, farmers, coal miners, movie stars, showgirls, rodeo riders, socialites, reporters, a maid,a general, a surgeon, and many many more. The ensemble says, "So this is what women are now - as different, as varied, as heroic, as forlorn, as conventional, as unconventional as this."