Something About the Women
Irene Young
North Street Book Prize 2024 (view all the winners)
Honorable Mention, Art Book
Critique by Jendi Reiter
The portrait compendium Something About the Women: Five Decades of Seeing by Irene Young is a photographic Who's Who of the lesbian and feminist music scene from the 1970s to today. These dynamic, joyful concert shots and posed photos include celebrities with mainstream name recognition, such as activist singer-songwriter Holly Near, comedian Kate Clinton, and rock duo The Indigo Girls, alongside women's music festival icons like Cris Williamson, Lucie Blue Tremblay, and Laura Nyro.
Because this is fundamentally a portrait of a community through the decades, Young devotes equal space to behind-the-scenes music-makers—songwriters, producers, sessions musicians, concert venue managers—and lesbian-feminist cultural workers in adjacent genres, such as anthropologist Marija Gimbutas and poet and playwright Jewelle Gomez. Numerous subjects appear in multiple shots with different people, underscoring how their creativity is a collective effort. It was also beautiful to see artists' 1970s or 1980s portraits juxtaposed with images of them in concert in the 2010s and 2020s, a testament to the value of older women and the longevity of their achievements.
All this inclusiveness leads to an overstuffed book, clocking in at 435 pages plus an index. Visually, it's incredible that the book doesn't feel more repetitive. There's great variety of poses, moods, proportions, and color schemes. The photos radiate warmth towards, and from, their subjects. Nonetheless, it was a slow read because there wasn't an evident structuring principle or through-line.
The book begins in the 1970s, but doesn't follow a strict chronology—nor would that necessarily have been the best way to organize it, given how satisfying it was to see the younger and older versions of a portrait subject together. Grouping the women by the genre of their work would be another logical option. On the other hand, this segregation might have diluted the book's core vision of a community where artists cross-pollinate and branch out into different cultural sectors. It wasn't uncommon for the same person to be a musician, writer, activist, and spiritual leader, for example.
In my opinion, a better way for Young to share her treasure trove of photos would have been to break it up into three volumes, each of which told a tighter story organized around a sub-group of notable women who had worked together. I wanted more quotes from song lyrics (she sprinkles a few throughout the book) and some big-picture background about how an artist's work interacted with the politics and culture of her time.
The physical book was printed on glossy paper with good color reproduction. The soft floppy covers made it uncomfortable to hold because of its heavy page count and long horizontal trim size. Though maybe not a book that newcomers to the women's music scene will want to read straight through, Something About the Women is a fantastic repository of queer history, and a great starting point to create your own playlist of inspiring music. I'm giving a copy to my lesbian mom!
Read an excerpt from Something About the Women (PDF)
Buy this book from Irene Young Books.
