Abigail Heyman

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Abigail Heyman (1942–2013) was an American photographer, photojournalist, and educator. She helped shape feminist photography and led the documentary and photojournalism department at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in Manhattan during the 1980s and 1990s. She is best known for Growing Up Female: A Personal Photo-Journal (1974).

Early life and education
- Born August 1, 1942, in Danbury, Connecticut, to Lazarus and Annette Heyman. She had a brother, Samuel J. Heyman.
- She attended Sarah Lawrence College, graduating in 1964 with plans to become a writer.
- After college, she learned photography through workshops and freelance work.

Life and work
- Heyman’s first major exhibition took place in New York in 1972.
- In 1974 she published Growing Up Female: A Personal Photo-Journal, a book that shows women in everyday roles and choices. It included intimate images, such as her own abortion. The book sold about 35,000 copies.
- She published Butcher, Baker, Cabinetmaker in 1978, and Dreams and Schemes: Love and Marriage in Modern Times in 1987.
- Heyman was invited to Magnum Photos by Charles Harbutt and worked with Magnum from 1974 to 1981, with her work appearing in Time, Life, Ms., Harpers, and The New York Times Magazine.
- In 1981 she co-founded Archive Pictures Inc. with Harbutt, Mary Ellen Mark, and Joan Liftin.
- In the mid-1980s she became director of ICP’s documentary and photojournalism department, a role she continued into the 1990s.

The wedding project
- Heyman pursued wedding photography as a personal project, attending more than 200 weddings by age 44.
- She treated each wedding as its own story and engaged with couples to learn why people choose to marry.

Personal life and death
- She married twice, the second time in 1978, and had a son named Lazar Bloch.
- Abigail Heyman died on May 28, 2013, in New York City at age 70.

Legacy and bibliography
- Her work is preserved at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey.
- In 2019, her photographs were featured in a Rencontres d’Arles exhibition alongside Eve Arnold and Susan Meiselas.
- Selected books: Growing Up Female (1974); Butcher, Baker, Cabinetmaker (1978); Dreams and Schemes: Love and Marriage in Modern Times (1987); Flesh & Blood: Photographers’ Images of Their Own Families (editor, 1992).