Catching the Shadow: Women and 19th-Century Photography

FAIN: GN-50378-04

City Lore: NY Center for Urban Folk Culture (New York, NY 10003-9345)
Jeanne Houck (Project Director: November 2003 to May 2005)

Scripting of a 60-minute documentary film about the early history of photography as seen through the careers of women photographers working between 1860 and 1900.

'Catching the Shadow' is the first historical documentary focusing on the early history of photography through the experiences of women photographers. Tracing events over the course of one year, 1899-1900, in the life of prominent photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston, the one-hour film reveals the nascent but powerful intertwining of photography and American culture at the turn of the century in prescient and dramatic terms.