Photographs © their respective makers, from top left to bottom right (details); Rebecca FInley, Rinko Kawauchi, Karen Davis, Barbara Bosworth, Maya Benizri Krinsky, Lorie Novak, Loli Kantor, Kristine Shomaker, Edith Pavlicek Hegner, Mary Ruth Moore, Lynne Buchanan, Jo Ann Chaus, Laura McPhee, Judith Golden, H. Jenings, Emma Powell, Terra Fonfriest, Meryl Meisler, Maude Schuyler Clay

We’ve all met someone who has inspired us. Someone whose creativity catapults our own and pushes us to become more daring artists. Earlier this year, we asked the artists from A Yellow Rose Project to tell us who has left an indelible mark on their practice. Over the next three days,  we’ll be sharing their unique responses. Thank you to everyone who shared their words and images for this initiative. We hope you find them as inspiring as we did. Go and give these artists a follow and look at their incredible works! They deserve it.

Part I

Meryl Meisler
was chosen by Aline Smithson
IG: @merylmeisler | @alinesmithson

“To say that I’m a fan of Meryl Meisler’s photographs would be an understatement. Her approach to documenting life is what drew me to photography — black and white square photographs that so perfectly capture a moment in time, seen with humor and pathos.” – Aline Smithson

© Meryl Meisler, Mom Getting her hair Teased at Besame Beauty Salon North Massapequa, NY, June 1976, Gelatin Silver Print.

Barbara Crane (†)
was chosen by Alice Hargrave
IG: | @barbaracranestudioarchive

“I loved Barbara and I love Barbara’s work. I have always been inspired by her constant curiosity evidenced in experimentation, reinventing, re-seeing, and making work that was always fresh, powerful, and without following rules or following what she had previously done. I think we share a certain wonder for all things in the natural world — she and I feel things deeply and express that delight in the mysteries of plants, animals, and the wild. Barbara was a supporter of my work, a mentor, a friend, and we share the same birthday so we are birthday sisters which I always loved, of course!” — Alice Hargrave

© Barbara Crane

Emma Powell
was chosen by Anne Berry
IG: @emmaobscura | @a_n_n_e_b_e_r_r_y

© Emma Powell, Gertrude, 2024

Terra Fondriest
was chosen by Ashleigh Coleman
© @terrafondriest | @ashleighcoleman

“The honesty and respect with which Terra captures rural life in the Ozarks is refreshing and inspiring.” — Ashleigh Coleman

© Terra Fondriest, images from the ‘Ozark Life’ long term project.

Maude Schuyler Clay
was chosen by Ashley Kauschinger
IG: @maudeclay | @ashleykauschinger

© Maude-Schuyler-Clay, Bonnie, Claire, Autumn Leaves, 1983

Jo Ann Chaus
was chosen by Astrid Reischwitz
IG: @joann_chaus | @astridreischwitz

© Jo Ann Chaus, NIAGARA, 2020

Marti Corn
was chosen by Betty Press
IG: @marti_corn | @bettypress

“I met Marti at PhotoNola Portfolio Review and connected with her as we both photograph in Kenya. Also she is photographing in Kakuma Refugee Camp and actively helping to support the refugees there.” — Betty Press

© Marti Corn, Peter and his 2-week old son Ayuen, 2018

Laura McPhee
was chosen by S. Billie Mandle
IG: @laurapmcphee | @sbilliemandle

© Laura McPhee from “Guardian Of Solitude”

Kristine Schomaker
was chosen by Carla Jay Harris
IG: @kristineschomaker | @carlajayharris

“I chose Kristine Shoemaker for her bold self-portrait series exploring identity, vulnerability, and transformation. Her work challenges traditional representations of women, using her own body as a powerful site of expression. Her images inspire me to embrace photography as a means of self-definition and personal truth.” — Carla Jay Harris

© Kristine Shoemaker, Plus, Hard Rock Hotel, Palm Springs – February 16, 2018

Lynne Buchanan
was chosen by Carolyn McIntyre Norton
IG: @lynnebuchananphotography | @carolynnortonart

“Her work is poetic and sensitive. I admire her ability to find outstanding compositions within natural settings, technical skill, ability to express her subject matter in a variety of techniques and forms, plus she is a force of nature when it comes to being prolific.” — Carolyn McIntyre Norton 

© Lynn Buchanan

Edith Pavlicek Hegner (†)
was chosen by Chehalis Deane Hegner
IG: @chehalishegner

“In 1922, amid the shifting light of a postwar America and the silent rise of women behind the lens, my grandmother, Edith Pavlicek was quietly documenting the world with an 8×10 view camera—an alchemical practice equal parts precision and intuition. Like many women at the time, Edith worked in obscurity, her photographs stored away and nearly lost to time. All of her glass plate negatives were destroyed by an angry family member. Today, her surviving celluloid images, gifted to me by a 3rd cousin, speak from the margins: intimate, deliberate, and defiant in their clarity. Sharing her photograph is an act of reclamation. Not just of her work, but of the lineage of seeing she passed, invisibly, to me.” — Chehalis Deane Hegner

© Edith Pavlicek Hegner, 1922

Mary Ruth Moore
was chosen by Christa Bowden
IG: @scannerobscura

“Mary Ruth Moore was my teacher, mentor, and dear friend during my time in graduate school at the University of Georgia, where she taught photography for decades. As an artist, Mary Ruth was first and foremost a chaser of light. She taught me that light is everything in photography, and that even the best subject is completely pointless without beautiful light. Mary Ruth continues to influence me tremendously as both an artist and as an educator. I always hear her voice in my head as I tell new photography students in the darkroom, “we are using light + silver + chemistry to make a photograph, and that is magic!” Another important lesson that Mary Ruth taught me is to slow down and to observe the world through this slowness. Photography is about time, and how a photographic image can slow it down, speed it up, or even stop it. I selected Mary Ruth’s image Magnolia Duet because I think that it embodies the power of photography to alter time. It is a pinhole image taken over the course of three days, allowing us to actually see the movement of the magnolia flower opening and understand time through the camera in a way which we could not observe with our eyes.” — Christa Bowden

© Mary Ruth Moore, Magnolia Duet, 1978

Judith Golden
was chosen by Colleen Mullins
IG: @colleen_mullins_photography

“Judith was the first person to teach me to make a book. So not only was she a great feminist artist in her own right, she laid the groundwork for my artistic arc as a maker. She died in January of 2023. To date, no museum in the country holding her work has acknowledged her death. The question remains today, as it did when she made this deeply feminist inquiry into the value placed on women–if you are a significant feminist, who made groundbreaking work in the 70’s and 80’s and nobody acknowledges your death, will you live forever?”

© Judith Golden, CAPTAIN & TENNILLE, 1976

Loli Kantor
was chosen by Deeda Baker
IG: @lolikantor_photo_artist | @deedra_baker

“I chose this work because of its deeply personal and emotionally layered approach to storytelling. Loli Kantor’s Call Me Lola: In Search of Mother is a powerful exploration of memory, grief, and identity. Through a blend of her own photography, family archives, and historical materials, she pieces together a visual narrative that spans generations. What resonates most is how the work transcends a single portrait of her mother—it becomes a broader meditation on loss, legacy, and the complexities of familial connection. The time and care Kantor invested in this project over two decades is palpable, and the result is both intimate and universally moving.”

© Loli Kantor, Self-Portrait, 2004

Lorie Novak
was chosen by Diane Meyer
IG: @lorie.novak | @dianemeyerstudio

“It’s hard to overstate the impact that Lorie has had on me professionally, personally and as an artist and teacher. Her work continues to inspire me, not only formally and conceptually, but through the way that it engages with and advocates for issues she cares about. Her commitment to her work, her students and her principles has shaped me and is something for which I am extremely grateful.”

© Lorie Novak, My Body, My Choice, 2025

Maggie Sherwood (†)
was chosen by Edie Bresler
IG:  @ediephoto

“I worked for Maggie in the 1980s when I was just starting out. We were introduced by Helen Buttfield, who was my photography professor at SVA and it was instant karma. Maggie was the first photographer I met who freely broke all the rules while making up new ones. She taught me so much about connecting with your own personal vision and introduced me to other women photographers like Betty Hahn and Lisette Model and the gallery owner Helen Gee. I printed for Maggie in the darkroom and helped hang shows at her gallery: The Floating Foundation of Photography; a purple barge that lived on the Hudson River. NYC was such an exciting time for photography in the 1980s and these women demonstrated all that might be possible – which ran counter to the traditionalists I encountered in the workforce and most of my classes. They were and still are a guiding inspiration. I am so grateful.”

© Maggie Sherwood, Dakar Senegal, 1982

Anna Atkins (†)
was chosen by Ellen Carey
IG: @ellencareyphotography

“The British Victorian, Anna Atkins (1799-1871), was the first woman photographer (albeit camera-less) and the first in color – two “firsts”. Her nature and botanical studies used the Prussian blue cyanotype for organic silhouettes in variant shades using the sun for exposure. These “sun pictures” were made with the 19th-century cyanotype method taught to her by the English polymath, Sir John Herschel (1792-1871). Atkins partnered her blue cyanotypes with the photogram (1834) discovered by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), her contemporary and photography pioneer. First called a photogenic drawing, a sun picture, then a photogram to describe a paper negative he created as a photo-object, it is the photogram name for this process-as-object that continues today.” — Ellen Carey

Image by Anna Atkins, public domain.

Karen Davis
was chosen by Ellen Feldman
IG: @ellenfeldmanphotographer

© Karen Davis

Rebecca Finley
was chosen by Emily Peacock
IG: @rebeccafinleyphoto | @epeacock

© Rebecca Finley, Otis, 2023

H. Jennings Sheffield
was chosen by Kalee Appleton
IG: @jenningssheffield_art | @kaleeappleton

© H.Jennings, Closing In

Barbara Bosworth
was chosen by Emily Sheffer
IG: @barbarabosworthstudio | @emilysheffer

“When I first saw Barbara Bosworth’s photograph, Artist’s Bluff, 1991,  I felt a connection to the Hudson River School, known for its sweeping, romantic views of the landscape, as often seen through the eyes of a solitary figure in the wilderness. Barbara’s image evokes similar themes, but with a contemporary bent: a highway winding through the landscape, a t-shirt and sneakers. The large-format diptych offers a “long-look”, inviting contemplation of the relationship between humans and the natural world, as seen from the artist’s point of view. This caring and attentive approach to landscape studies within photography aligns with my own interests, and is why my friendship and mentorship with Barbara has endured for over a decade.” — Emily Sheffer

© Barbara Bosworth, Artist’s Bluff, 1991

Maya Benizri Krinsky
was chosen by Frances F. Denny
IG: @francesfdenny

“I was lucky enough to attend graduate school with Maya. She has been a dear friend and artistic sounding-board ever since. She has the sharpest mind, keenly tuned for nuance and subtlety. Her work is heady and challenging, but often suffused with humor and wit. She is the most wonderful friend and an everlasting inspiration to me.”

© Maya Krinsky, Roxana

Rinko Kawauchi
was chosen by Gail Samuelson
IG: @rinkokawauchi | @gailsamuelsonphoto

© Rinko Kawauchi

Rosalind Fox Solomon
was chosen by Frances Jakubek
IG:  @rosalindfoxsolomon | @franciepants

“The words “Got to Go” echoed as I reimagined myself as a New Yorker. The book with this title had an intimate pull on me and introduced me to an artist I would continue to learn from and forever cherish. Rosalind Fox Solomon has shared pieces of her soul through her photographs. Her gaze is empathetic and honest, and the pictures are compassionate without hiding their curiosity. Having had the opportunity to work directly with Rosalind has placed me in a cheerleading role to share the work of this influential artist for the rest of my life. She passed away in the summer of 2025.”

© Rosalind Fox Solomon, New Hampshire, 2002