8 March 2021

© Eleanor Church

In celebration of International Women's Day we asked our members to send us images that resonated with them and encapsulated the sentiment of this day.

© Eleanor Church
Nina is 4 years old. She wants to be a professional cyclist. She rides her bike at least once a day, often with one hand, sometimes with none and with her eyes closed! She can climb almost vertical hills unaided. She knows that every fall is just part of her journey to becoming a 'real cyclist' and takes it in her stride. Girls Can Do Anything.
@larkrisepictures

 © Karen Yeomans
Standing in the Light is a long-standing body of work celebrating women in sport, from grass roots to elite professionals. Karen’s mission is to help women be seen, supporting the rise of women’s sport and to enthuse the next generation of female sporting ambition.
@karen_yeomans

© Marita Upeniece
Performing gender - A drag-king getting ready for a performance at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, pre-Covid. Part of an ongoing project on drag-kings, Marita aims to explore how female drag-kings question and parody dominant masculinity and draw attention to how both masculinity and femininity are constructed and performed.

©Kristina Varaksina
Sameera - Sameera was born prematurely without a left eye and so many other health issues her doctors were uncertain that she would survive. But she did. The doctors thought it a miracle and when you meet her you know that she is a miracle. At eighteen, she is intelligent, wise, kind and so full of light, it is inspiring.

“The essence of beauty is not perfection; it cannot only be defined by your appearance but by your character, in the way that you carry yourself and in the way that you treat others. What makes you unique, makes you beautiful.”
@kristinavaraksina

© Carolyn Mendelsohn
Phoenix Women – 100 years on - One hundred years ago, Flora Lion was a society portrait painter dispatched to Bradford to capture women working for the war effort. The result was a stunning portrait entitled Women’s Canteen at Phoenix Works, Bradford. This photograph is a re-imagining of the original and pays homage to those women as well as showing how far we have come. It involved 32 of Bradford’s 'sung' and unsung heroines. Including bus drivers, midwives, poets, an MP, cleansing operatives, a baroness, an Olympian, and many others who represent the city. Phoenix Women was conceived and co-ordinated by Artworks Creative Communities Bradford.
@Carolynmendelsohn

© Anne-Marie Michel
This is Idella Hanson, 70 years old, a trucker woman I photographed along her route in the Arizona desert. She has driven trucks across America for the past 50 years. She is a bit of an icon in trucking circles and even has a truck-stop named after her in Little Rock, Arkansas.

She drives 'high security' and carries a gun to protect the load she transports. But she also has a softer, contrasting side to her - she sings at her church and sews quilts for charity in her spare time.
She’s one of the most amazing women I’ve ever met.

(This image is a part of my Sisters of the Road: America’s Female Truckers series).