Top 10 Women Photographers to Follow in 2025

Women have been at the forefront of photography for decades, and today, this still remains true. And we still have far to go. To mark Women's History Month in March, we're sharing some of our favourite work by ten exciting and inspiring women in photography. Check out this photography—in no particular order—by Olivia Lifungula, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Nancy A. Hernandez, Jennifer McCord, Christie Hemm Klok, Arpita Shah, Chloe Dewe Mathews, Andrea DiCenzo, Franziska Kuttler and Evelyn Dragan.

Olivia Lifungula

Olivia Lifungula is a Congo-born, Belgium-raised photographer and filmmaker now living in London. Her work explores the themes of intimacy, beauty and the construction of Black femininity in the arts and media. She has most recently been featured in Vogue Italia’s 20 female photographers to watch, as well as Harpers Bazaar UK, Elle UK and Marie-Claire US. Her clients include Estée Lauder, Abercrombie & Fitch, Converse and Dr. Martens.

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn is a documentary photographer working in the medium for 20 years. She is the co-author of the independently-published MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora, highlighting photography produced by women of African descent. 

Barrayn is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and has also been published in National Geographic, Vogue, NPR, VOX, Vanity Fair and Le Monde. Over the years, Barrayn’s personal and professional projects have taken her around the world to focus on Black diasporic communities. Her special interest is in religious traditions and the experiences of women. 

Barrayn has exhibited her work at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, the Taubman Museum of Art in Virginia, Photoville in New York, the MAK Gallery in Venice and London, and the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in New York. 

She is a member of Kamoinge, a pioneering collective of African-American photographers. Barryn is a 2017 African Great Lakes Reporting Fellow with the International Women’s Media Foundation, a 2018 finalist for the Dorothea Lange–Paul Taylor Prize from Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, one of the Hundred Heroines in 2018 and OkayAfrica’s 100 Women in 2019. She earned an MA in Arts Politics from New York University and is currently working on a book about contemporary Black photographers.

Laylah Amatullah Barrayn joined MPB's 'Accelerate Action' Panel ahead of International Women's Day 2025.

Nancy A. Hernandez

Bronx-based photographer Nancy A. Hernandez—alias Goblin—has been storytelling through photography since 2015. The Dominican photographer owes her inspiration to her early poetry writings, The Bronx and the culture around which she was raised. By embracing her vulnerabilities and exploring the vibrancy of her being, Goblin is able to reveal those same levels of depth within her subjects. 

“Writing and allowing myself to do my spiritual work has provided me with a new perspective and way of connecting to those around me,” says Goblin. “Connecting in a way where others feel seen and heard, not only through my camera lens but with my heart, eyes and ears. I see photography as an energy exchange”. 

Her primary focus is capturing the unique emotion we tend to harbor within ourselves. Goblin finds release in art through poetry, which gives her the power to put images to her words and has led her into other mediums of creation.

Jennifer McCord

Jennifer McCord is a 25-year-old portrait and lifestyle photographer based in London. Her work centers on intimacy and emotional photography, which creates powerful images with a narrative feel—showing the true energy of the humans she photographs.

McCord has spent the last six years photographing some of the biggest names in music and entertainment, both on and off stage while honing her distinctive style. Her clients include Ellie Goulding, Complex, Westlife, Universal Music and Sony.

Christie Hemm Klok

Christie Hemm Klok is a freelance photographer based in San Francisco. Her work is centred around creating dynamic portraits. However, she often finds herself focusing on telling stories—particularly in the athletic and industrial fields. Christie’s use of lighting and colour gives her images their unique quality for storytelling.

When not on photoshoots, she is a mom to her seven-year-old son, Wyatt. She’s often found enjoying the beautiful Mendocino Coast with her family or playing soccer. She is represented by Day Reps, and her work has been published in ESPN, National Geographic, The New York Times, The Atlantic and TIME.

Arpita Shah

Arpita Shah is a photographic artist based in Eastbourne, UK. She works between photography and film, exploring culture and identity. As an India-born artist, Shah spent an earlier part of her life living between India, Ireland and the Middle East, before settling in the UK. This migratory experience is reflected in her practice, which often focuses on the notion of home, belonging and shifting cultural identities.

In 2020, Shah was featured in The Guardian as part of the Hundred Heroines Seven Groundbreaking Female Photographers. She has exhibited her work across the UK and around the world, including at the Detroit Center of Contemporary Photography, Tramway in Glasgow, Chobi Mela IX in Dhaka, Autograph ABP in London, Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow and Impressions Gallery in Bradford. She is the 2019 Artist-in-Residence at Light Work/Autograph, and her work is held at the National Galleries of Scotland.

These images are from her ongoing series Modern Muse, exploring British Asian female identity across Birmingham and the Midlands, commissioned by GRAIN.

Chloe Dewe Mathews

Chloe Dewe Mathews is an artist, photographer and filmmaker from London. Her work has been published in The Guardian, New Yorker and Le Monde, and she has exhibited it at the Tate Modern in London, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden. 

The British Council Art Collection, the National Galleries of Scotland and the Irish State Art Collection are among the collections that have acquired Mathews’ work. She has also received commissions from institutions such as the Contemporary Art Society, Oxford University and Photoworks.

Mathews is the winner of the British Journal of Photography’s International Photography Award, the Royal Photographic Society’s Vic Odden Award and the Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography from Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. She has published four books: Shot at Dawn, 2014, Caspian: the Elements, 2018, In Search of Frankenstein, 2018, and Thames Log, 2021.

Andrea DiCenzo

Andrea DiCenzo is an American photojournalist whose work focuses on armed conflict and humanitarian crises throughout the Middle East. 

Over the past five years, much of her work has focused on the war with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, as well as Iraq’s legacy of armed conflict. This includes photographing the Islamic State’s weapons trafficking and production factories for WIRED Magazine, documenting the investigation into casualties from US-led coalition strikes in Raqqa for Amnesty International, and reporting on the tens of thousands of children who lost their parents under the Islamic State or the battle against it for The New York Times.

DiCenzo is a National Geographic Society Explorer, working on a story in Baghdad, and is currently based in Dubai.

Franziska Kuttler

Franziska Kuttler is a freelance photographer with a focus on fashion, lifestyle and portraits. Her clients include brands like Marc O’Polo, Mister Spex and Aktie. Last year, she created the podcast foto freundinnen to help promote diversity and equality in the industry, giving young photographers more courage and the opportunity to be heard.

“Conscious and graphic design have interested me since school”, says Kuttler. “A few years ago, I came to Berlin to study. After my bachelor's degree, I ended up belonging to the fashion industry and was affected by how to adapt. I dusted off my old camera and it became my own companion.”

Evelyn Dragan

Evelyn Dragan has been working as a full-time photographer since 2013. She has worked for editorial publications including Monocle, Bloomberg Businessweek, Architectural Digest, brand eins and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, and her clients include Volkswagen, Lufthansa and Jaguar. Her approach is rooted in everyday life, to observe and capture her surroundings—finding light, colour and textures in detail.

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