Portraits of Brave Women Who Stood Alone in Crowds of Men

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: And now we’re going to turn to Iran where authorities are cracking down on protesters but only excessive and lethal force, but also by trying to shut them off from the oxygen of the internet, that’s according to Human Rights Watch. As women there raise their voices and protest for their rights, we are reminded about the general absence of a female presence in most positions of power. In her new book, “The Only Woman”, Oscar nominated director Immy Humes compiles historical images of singular women surrounded by men. A simple but powerful premise. The pages showcase women from 20 countries. Proving how common it was to be the only female in the room. Immy Humes explores this phenomenon with Michel Martin.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MICHEL MARTIN, CONTRIBUTOR: Thanks, Christiane. Immy Humes, thank you so much for talking with us.

IMMY HUMES, AUTHOR, “THE ONLY WOMAN”: Thank you so much. I’m really honored and excited to be here.

MARTIN: How did this project appear to you? I have to say that, you know, it’s sort of shocking to think of because some of these images in the book are very well-known. Obviously, some of them are not. But I’m sure that a lot of us have looked at these pictures a million times and never, you know, honed in on the fact that there was only one woman there and there’s often only one woman there. So, how did this come to you?

HUMMES: Well, it’s funny because now — I mean, there was an actual moment where I started to get out obsessed. But in retrospect, I can see it brewing like for a lifetime, weirdly. But there was this one particular photo that got me, kind of, fixated. And it was because I was working on a film project and it was a biography of a filmmaker — of a woman filmmaker named Shirley Clarke who’s this radical amazing filmmaker from the 60s. And she was often described as the only woman filmmaker of her day, you know. I found this picture of her surrounded by men. Her cast, her crew, her investors, and she’s celebrating. And it crystalized so much about her career. And, you know, the good and the bad. You know, in other words, she was this renegade, like, you know, iconic class out there in front braking all these barriers. But it became a very, very hard road for her. So, I started, sort of, like, just staring at this picture. And then I realized that it was reminding me of something. And it was just what you said which are, you know, there are these other pictures that are kind of stored in our memory banks, or at least for my generation. I don’t know. But you know, there is — of our, you know, of our cultural heritage. And I realized there was one — particularly, I was like, wait, wait. And I went and found the second picture in the book which is this famous photo, a black and white phot for “Life Magazine” of all the most famous painters in the ’50s in Ne York. All the abstract expressionists, you know, Jackson Pollack, and De Kooning, and Rothko. And they’re all these famous guys. And then there’s this one woman. And she’s like seated way up top in this very strange position. And it’s a very memorable photo because of her. But everybody about that photo is always like, well, who is she? You know, it’s like they’re all of these amazing names in the history of art. And then there’s this woman who nobody has ever heard of, you know. As somehow, I found them compelling. I kind of relate to the woman in every case. I’m like, oh, there she is. And then I’m like, how was she feeling? What was she thinking? You know, what was it like for her?

MARTIN: I think this is probably the earliest damage that you have found for the book. It’s from 1862. You know, the — some of the early days of

photography. And it’s titled “Mrs. Fairfax”.

HUMMES: Yes, this is a really important photograph in the history of photography and the history of the civil war. It’s a rare photograph and this one sentence which is that, even though black women had large holes in the civil war, they’re very often or they’re almost always not in the picture. This is the case of — it’s a camp of union officers, of northern officers. All in their, you know, uniforms. And then, you know, in a different pose is a black woman, who is the cook for the union camp. And it’s written in handwriting, I think by the general in question, Mrs. Fairfax, chief cook and bottle washer. And that photograph was given to another general. And it was right after a victory. They were all looking pretty good. It was near the beginning of the war. So, it’s kind of a mystery right away.

MARTIN: Well, there are so many things that stand out to me of, obviously, knowing the history of the United States as we do that the fact that he gave her the honor of being called missis. The fact that he addressed her by her last name. The fact that he knew her name that, you know, she wasn’t aunty or, you know, whoever.

HUMMES: We can assume from what he wrote that there was some respect that he’s giving her. But on the other hand, we only have his voice. You know, his voice. And it’s such a damn shame, of course. You know, you — it just magnifies the silence to see here there. And, you know, and wonder whether she was safe with them and whether she was honored and working, you know, take care of these — they look very well fed. You know, or whether she was vulnerable. It is impossible to know.

MARTIN: Immy, you said in another interview that this book is a study of power.

HUMMES: Uh-huh.

MARTIN: What did you mean by that?

HUMMES: Well, all of these photographs by definition, they’re group portraits and they’re all pictures of public life, right, by definition. They’re, you know, they’re groups of men. So, they’re institutions, they’re schools, they’re professional associations, they’re — you name it. It’s like, you know, life in the public sphere. Women had been, of course, you know, kept in the domestic sphere for centuries. So, these are — these — the pictures all show that one moment when a woman gets in there. So, that is, you know, as living in — it’s the definition of patriarchy as seeing, you know, an all-male world when that one woman sort of enters the male stage. And so, in that sense it’s a study of power. I hope that’s fair, you know. The power in the public world had been all male with tiny exceptions. And those pictures capture some of those exceptions.

MARTIN: And you know, gosh, let’s just — speaking of power, of course, Shirley Chisholm in 1972. She was the first black woman elected to the U.S. Congress on the set of “Meet the Press”. It was fascinating to me how many of the black women in the – in your collection stood out. Not just because they were women but also because they were black in spaces that many times there weren’t expected to be in. And then Gloria Richardson, this sort — iconic photo from 1963 from the era of one of the waves of civil right activism where she’s kind of — famously, kind of, pushing aside this national guardsman. And you’re thinking, whoa.

HUMMES: Side eye to the bayonet.

MARTIN: Side eye to the bayonet.

HUMMES: Yes.

MARTIN: And then there’s Ieshia Evans in 2016 at another protester — There’s another photograph that became iconic of the period. And it was just — it was interesting how many of these women putting their bodies where they weren’t expected to be or where they weren’t supposed to be. And then the marathoner —

HUMMES: Yes.

MARTIN: — like, the — what gets me about that picture of the marathoner is like rage on the faces of these —

HUMMES: It was a race official because the Boston Marathon in 1967 was only open to men. And it was just not contested. And she registered with her initials. So, there was nothing underhanded about it. She just sent in her money and got her number. And it was her initials. And she just sort of did it. So, she was legal and everything, so to speak. But this race official got wise, like, not that long into the race and saw her and just lost it. And really went and then tried to grab her — like, grab her number off. He wanted to get her number off and grab her and take her out of the race.

MARTIN: It was fascinating when you said — the way you just — the way you wrote about it. You were saying, he was like, get out of my race. What? You know, my race. And you can sense so much, just the rage on his face because she’s — what is she running on woman. I mean, that’s not enough.

HUMMES: (INAUDIBLE) running all women, those were her words because I quote her. You know, she’s still alive. She’s an amazing person. She just wrote me a little note actually. And she was really beautiful. And she said, at the time I wasn’t thinking of myself as being the only woman. I was thinking of myself as a runner. And now, it’s these things that you only see in retrospect that you can only with a lot of distance of time. She said, now, the fact that I was the only woman, of course, is what really — you know, is important. And we see it now.

MARTIN: So, this is one of those where the — it’s Elizabeth — later, Elizabeth Roboz Einstein, but at this moment, Elizabeth Roboz, she’s a biochemist at Denver, Colorado. This picture was taken in 1946. They — the — for those who are not aware of the American Society of Sugar Beet Technologists, tried to make extracting sugar from the lowly beetroot, an efficient sustainable and profitable process. And at their 1946 assembly, you write, their numbers included exactly one woman. And you — I was like, where is she? And I’m now — you know.

HUMMES: You know, sort of pictures of public life were of interest to me. Where there was just, you know, a sea of men and one woman, that’s the only rule. No cropping, that’s another rule. But so, they’re different. There are a lot of one where they are trailblazers and heroines and pioneers. Like Elizabeth Roboz, either unknown at the time or, you know, somebody like Madam Curie who’s in here, too. You know, who’s just obviously the symbol of female achievement, right. But there are other categories too. Like Mrs. Fairfax, you know, where she is in there because she’s doing a job, you know. She’s doing a job of cook or there’s another — there’s a nurse. And then there’s also a naked model for an art studio in Paris. And you start to see that there are these different categories of ways that, like, women could enter male space.

MARTIN: Well, also, there were women who were both. Women who were celebrities and, sort of, like, iconic figures and trailblazers but who are also doing a job. Sometimes a job that they had not expected to be doing. Like Katharine Graham, the late publisher of “The Washington Post” during this incredibly pivotal period of its history where — this is a picture of her with her fellow newspaper publishers. And she sort of stands out like this bright penny.

HUMMES: Yes.

MARTIN: And during this iconic period of its history, during the Watergate era when journalists were investigating the Watergate Scandal, she was subjected to — people forget this now but tremendous, you know, verbal abuse and threats from people in the government. Something that she, as a young woman, hadn’t been really prepared for but she rose to the occasion.

HUMMES: Exactly. She’s a tremendous example. My — what I was just saying was sort of a long-winded way. I mean, back to the position of women in the groups because there were all different kinds of positions. There’s Katharine Graham and others who were put right up front, you know, or Shirley Clarke who’s like, the center of the circle. Very often those single woman is given — in the photograph is given a kind of a special place by the men. And then the painters we saw her way up top. She calls herself the feather in the cap of the picture, you know. They’re very, sort of, outstanding positions that mark their positions as a woman. But then there are others where she’s absolutely hidden or even literally hidden in a few. Where you can just see, like, a tiny bit of her. And they — but all of the positions, I think, are sort of significant. You know, they all speak to what’s going on.

MARTIN: One of the things that I also appreciated about the variety of the pictures is that these were not all women whose lives ended in triumph. I mean, some of them were — yes, the marathoner, she did finish the race because it isn’t clear from looking at that picture if she’s going to finish the race because clearly, they are trying to take her out. But the scuba diver, for example, I mean, some of the stories were very disturbing —

HUMMES: Well, she’s magnificent.

MARTIN: — to see, sort of, the effort made to thwart these women’s ambitions. And that was very sad and I think worth remembering.

HUMMES: Well, yes. I mean, part of it is realizing, sort of, in a kind of new way or in a visceral way how difficult it is for firsts very often. Firsts, seconds, thirds. But for those pioneers who are entering a space socially when they’re a minority in the space or the only — the only because this is a study of only-ness. You know, we know that it’s hard on people but we have a lot of examples here. For Andrea — for the woman who, you know, is the first deep sea diver of the army. It was a rough road tow. They made it hard for her. And same with many others in the book where the first is not followed for decades by the second.

MARTIN: Talk more about what some of the feelings that these images evoke for you. And obviously, they’re going to evoke different thing for different people depending on what your own life experiences have been. Whether you’ve been that only one in the room or whether you’ve never been. And you wonder what that’s like. I’m just interested in what your own — what it brings up for you.

HUMMES: Every one of these brings up tremendously different feelings for me. Now, I know their stories much better than when I first found them. But Iesha Evans, Benazir Bhutto, I mean these are — each one, to me, they’re very powerful photos that evoke a really deep range of feelings. And I also — you know, I find them visually interesting but also the stories are arresting. Here’s Khan and all of the most celebrated, you know, artistic cinema directors, not very long ago I mean, 2007. And look, it’s not the men’s room line, right? It’s, you know, it’s what — these are the guys. And then there happens to be one. A single, single one who is deigned champion who, for decades, was the only one. The only woman allowed in that club. So, to me, yes. This looks — I mean, it’s sort of infuriating, actually but it also looks fairly silly.

MARTIN: Here’s one, Amy Geraldine, known as Dina Stock. She was an undergraduate at Oxford. This is from your book, a joint meeting of the West African students’ union and the West African National Secretariat, that was a Pan-African as a movement founded by Kwame Nkrumah, the future leader of Ghana who’s seated at the far-right front — on the same on the front row in the far right. And what was she doing there? She — what did she, like, help organize this meeting or she —

HUMMES: I think she dedicated her life to the cause of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism. She was very serious for her entire life. And she led a fascinating life. Very adventurous and interesting life. She never married, never had kids, and went around the world and served. Taught and was an organizer and wrote. And here I think she’s serving as — I mean, it looks like it, right? She – – as some kind of a host. And it’s very interesting how it all looks to me. She’s got her hat on. And, you know, she’s got this sort of prim look hosting all of these very important men in suits. And I find all of the photos fascinating but this one is very special.

MARTIN: So — now that you’ve put all this together, it’s interesting, it’s one of those things that once you’ve seen it you can’t unsee it. The images run from 1862 to 2020. So, not exactly ancient history. But if we — if you were to start in 2021, what do you think? Do you you’d have — you’d still have a book?

HUMMES: Oh, yes. You see them in the news every week. I was going to say every day but maybe every week. And, I mean, also in different cultures, in different professions, some corners of our world are still deeply male. You really — it’s really not hard to find them. They leap out at me now. But certainly, in politics, in international politics. I mean, the queen was a great example of an only woman. But you know, you see them all the time. In entertainment still there’s often, you know, the one woman in the band or they come out.

MARTIN: Immy Humes, thank you so much for talking with us about this. And thanks so much for putting this together.

HUMMES: Thank you. I really had a great time talking to you. Thanks.