Soldiers and Suffragettes

Essays from four women who have engaged closely with Christina Broom's work explore and contextualise her imagery to reveal the compelling story of the women behind the lens.

In 1903 a self-taught novice photographer, Christina Broom, turned to photography as a business venture to support her family. From this modest beginning, she was to emerge as Britain's acknowledged pioneer woman press photographer. Unconventionally for women photographers of the time, Broom took her camera to the streets and recorded arresting and historically important images of Suffragettes, sporting events, royal occasions and World War I soldiers. She developed a significant enterprise in picture postcards, which she published from her home in Fulham, London, till her death in 1939.

Despite her camera's presence at many significant historical events and her importance to press photography, Christina Broom's achievements have, to date, been underappreciated. This, the first publication on her life and work, redresses that neglect. The book also illuminates the vital role of her dedicated assistant and daughter, Winifred, without whom Broom's substantial contribution to photography might have been lost.

Broom's remarkable work celebrating her personal journey, approach and skill is showcased through many rich photographs drawn from the Museum of London's fine collection of her plate glass negatives and prints which reflect her visual style and spectrum of subjects.

The book accompanied the exhibition of the same name at Museum of London Docklands.