On Thursday I was invited to the opening of Anita Corbin's '100 First Women Portraits' at the RCA Dyson Gallery in London. Anita has spent a decade travelling across the UK to photograph women who have been first in their fields and the exhibition has been timed to mark 100 years of women's suffrage in the UK. The result is an amazing collection celebrating the variety and depth of what women have been doing in the UK over the last 100 years. Walking around the exhibition I was struck by how recent some of the 'firsts' were and how fundamental. For me, it had the effect of highlighting just how far women still have to go as well as a demonstration of how far we've come.
I can't recommend enough going to take a look. The exhibition is free to the public until 22nd August at the Dyson Gallery which is on the south side of Battersea Bridge. Anita has also produced a book of the portraits available at www.1stwomenuk.co.uk.
It was such a privilege to celebrate the opening with so many of the first women - 62 of the 100 were there - great to see Sarah Outen and Rebecca Stephens, and to meet Beth French, Dany Cotton and so many other experts in their fields. Wonderful, uplifting evening.
