A young girl crouches in the street next to a green car, reaching toward the ground near the rear tire, with a blue Volkswagen Beetle parked in the background.Helen Levitt, ‘New York’, 1980, colour print, 36 × 40.3 cm, Cologne, Galerie Zander.

A new book highlights the extraordinary work of over 60 women photographers from the 19th century to the present day.

Women Photographers Are Dangerous, which will be published by ACC Art Books on September 5, brings together 100 historically significant photographs taken by women photographers, including work by Eve Arnold, Vivian Maier, and Anne Atkins.

A woman with wavy hair wears an ornate dark dress and holds a rectangular frame with an oval cutout over one eye, revealing her gaze.Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, with the collaboration of Pierre-Louis Pierson, ‘Scherzo di Follia’ [Joke of Madness], circa 1863-1866, albumen print from a collodion glass negative, 18,8 x 12,5 cm, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art. A person in a suit and cap stands beside a large-wheeled penny-farthing bicycle indoors against a paneled wall.Frances Benjamin Johnston, ‘Full-Length Self-Portrait Dressed as a Man with a False Moustache, Posing with a Bicycle, Facing Left’, circa 1890, albumen print, 20.9 × 14.9 cm, Washington, Library of Congress.

The book looks at the work of more than 60 women whose contributions to photography have not always received widespread recognition. Their work spans subjects including war, politics and feminist activism, as well as art, science, journalism and advertising.

Many of the photographers featured in Women Photographers Are Dangerous worked in areas that required them to challenge established conventions and take risks. This book presents their work across different periods and fields, highlighting the varied roles women have played in the history of photography.

A sepia-toned portrait of a young child with long, dark hair and feathered wings, resting their chin on crossed arms.Julia Margaret Cameron, Study for a Holy Family [Étude pour une Sainte Famille], 1866-1870, silver albumen print, 33.3 x 26.2 cm, Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum. A woman with a worried expression rests her chin on her hand, surrounded by three young children who are leaning against her.Dorothea Lange ‘Migrant Mother’, Nipomo, California, March 1936, digital file of original negative, retouched in the 1930s, 10.2 × 12.7 cm, Washington, Library of Congress.

Women Photographers Are Dangerous reveals how women have been involved in photography since Louis Daguerre introduced the first camera to the world in 1838. Since then, women photographers have worked across virtually every area of the medium, but their contributions have often received less attention.

A cyanotype print of the seaweed Dictyota dichotoma, showing several specimens in various stages of growth against a blue background.Anna Atkins, ‘Dictyota dichotoma in the young state; and in fruit’ [Dictyota dichotoma in jeune; et en fruits], 1850, extracted from Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, vol. I, 1843-1853 1849-1850, cyanotype on paper, 26 x 21 cm, New York, Public Library

The book cover for "Women Photographers Are Dangerous" by Laure Adler and Clara Bouveresse features a portrait of a woman with heavy makeup, a star on her cheek, and a cigarette in her hand.

The collection includes Eve Arnold’s famous portraits of Marilyn Monroe, as well as photographs by Vivian Maier, whose work was discovered only after her death. It also features Anne Atkins, who is believed by some historians to have created the first-ever photographic album using cyanotypes to document dried algae without a camera.

Written and compiled by historians Laure Adler and Clara Bouveresse, Women Photographers Are Dangerous seeks to bring greater recognition to these photographers and their work.

Women Photographers Are Dangerous will be published by ACC Art Books on September 5.

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