The Booth Western Art Museum is launching a new series of exhibitions exploring specific themes within its extensive photography collection. The first installment is The West in Focus: Women, which will highlight notable historic and contemporary female photographers, as well powerful portraits of Western women.
“So much of Western art is by and about men, so celebrating women and the art of women made sense,” says Mark Medley, the museum’s curator of photography. “One objective of [this exhibit] is to better inform viewers of women photographers past and present and their contributions to the ongoing story of the West and Western art.”
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), Portrait of a Migratory Worker, 1935, silver gelatin print, 9½ x 7 in. Booth Western Art Museum photography collection, Cartersville, Georgia, ph2022.007.001. © Dorothea Lange.
On display will be 50 pieces that include emotional portraiture by Dorothea Lange, sensual contemporary compositions by Cara Weston, Barbara Van Cleve’s iconic images of resilient Western women and much more. There are also 12 portraits of women by male photographers, including work by noted Western photographers Edward S. Curtis, Paul Strand and Adam Clark Vroman. A variety of photographic mediums, from 19th-century photogravure prints to digitally enhanced pigment prints will also be represented. Among the highlights are Laura Gilpin’s (1891-1979) photographs in The Mesa Verde National Park. Medley explains, “A native of Colorado, Gilpin is famous for her portraits of Navajo and pueblo people, as well as Western landscapes, exemplified in these images from her self-published 1927 book Mesa Verde National Park.” Gilpin eventually moved to Sante Fe, where she befriended Georgia O’Keeffe and continued to work until the end of her life.
Barbara Van Cleve, KaDee Hopping Down From Swather, 2001, pigment print, 19 1/5 x 13½ in. Booth Western Art Museum permanent collection, Cartersville, Georgia, ph2018.007.001. © Barbara Van Cleve.
Medley also points to Lange’s gelatin silver print Portrait of a Migratory Worker. “With her wistful expression, this young woman is one of the thousands of portraits Lange created for the U.S. Farm Security Administration in the 1930s, documenting the fallout of the economic depression,” says Medley. “It is also a poignant example of Lange’s enduring ability to combine social activism and art. A former professional portrait photographer, Lange was a master at putting her subjects at ease before snapping the picture.”
Laura Gilpin (1891-1979), The Mesa Verde National Park, 1927, photography booklet, 11 x 17 in. Booth Western Art Museum permanent collection, Cartersville, Georgia, ph2023.004.001. © Laura Gilpin.
With the publication of her 1995 book Hard Twist: Western Ranch Women, Barbara Van Cleve was inducted into the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, and became famous for her depictions of contemporary Western ranch life. “Photographed a few years later, the young woman [in KaDee Hopping Down From Swather], KaDee Chew, has a variety of interests, including vintage trucks, fishing and Western swing dancing,” adds Medley. “She also does various ranch chores, including cutting hay. Here, she has just cut a field at the Chew’s ranch in northern Colorado. She will then rake, bale and load the hay to feed sheep and cattle.”
Paul Strand (1890-1976), Girl and Child, Toluca, 1933, photogravure, 7 x 6 in. Booth Western Art Museum permanent collection, Cartersville, Georgia, ph2020.001.001.016. © Paul Strand.
Among the portraits of women by male photographers is Strand’s Girl and Child, Toluca, from 1933. It was taken during the several years he spent traveling through the Mexican countryside, documenting its towns, churches and people. “According to Strand,” says Medley, quoting the artist, “‘It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.’”
The West in Focus: Women opens August 2, 2025, and will remain on view through January 18, 2026. —
The West in Focus: Women
August 2, 2025-January 18, 2026
Booth Western Art Museum
501 N. Museum Drive, Cartersville, GA 30120
(770) 387-1300, www.boothmuseum.org
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