"Women of Vision" for National Geographic

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"Women of Vision" at Palm Beach Photographic

By Skip Sheffield

If you are like me and have read the National Geographic since childhood, you will love the new exhibit “Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment.” The exhibit kicks off the annual FOTOfusion celebration at Palm Beach Photographic Centre, 415 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. The exhibit is up through March 22.
Featured artists are Lynsey Addario, who has conflict coverage of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Darfur and the Congo; Miami-born Kitra Cahana, who explores anthropological, social and spiritual themes; Jodi Cobb, who has worked in more than 65 countries and produced 30 Geographic stories; landscape photographer Diane Cook; Carolyn Drake, winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, the Lange Taylor Documentary Prize and a World Press Photo Award; Knight Fellow and arts education advocate Lynn Johnson; National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Beverly Joubert; nature photographer Erika Larsen; Stephanie Sinclair, who conducted a decade-long study on child marriage and winner of three World Press Photo awards, and Amy Toensing, who began her career covering the White House and Congress for the New York Times, who for the past three years documented Aboriginal Australia for a June 2013 feature in National Geographic. In short these women are the highest-standard professionals.
"I have been kidnapped twice and in Libya my driver was killed," said Lynsey Addario matter-of-factly at a media preview of the 100-photograph show. My job is to show reality, not to be superficial."
If her globe-trotting weren't enough, Addario is also mother to a 3-year-old boy. She loves with her husband in London, U.K. when she is not travelling.
"We were very deliberate about whom we chose," reports Meg Calnan, public relations director at National Geographic. "We chose women who were the most active at the time when we began this project, over two years ago. Each had to have at least one feature in National Geographic."
Some of the women have as many as 30 credits with the esteemed publication.
For the past decade some of the most powerful stories have been produced by a new generation of photojournalists who are women," states Kathryn Keane, vice president of National Geographic Exhibitions. "These women are as different as the places and the subjects they have covered, but they all share the same passion and commitment that has come to define National Geographic."
"Women of Vision" is sponsored by PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. For more information call 561-253-2600 or go to www.fotofusion.org.