Theresa Babb: Camden (1898–1901)
Theresa Babb: Camden (1898–1901) delves in the captivating yet overlooked work of Theresa Babb (1868–1948), an American pioneer photographer whose oeuvre, though freely available, has long languished unnoticed in the depths of the public domain.
Independently funded and free from profit motives, the catalogue, designed and compiled in 2024 by Boris Andreev and Alessandro Kanina, is a labor of love dedicated to honoring Babb’s extraordinary contributions. Accompanied by self-authored essays in both German and English and boasting high-quality design and typographic craftsmanship, this curated release is poised to captivate a diverse audience, inviting them to marvel at her ingenuity and the transformative era she immortalized.
Babb’s unparalleled command over light, shadow, and composition doesn’t just echo the seismic shifts in late Victorian and Edwardian photography—laying bare the hurdles and triumphs that upended the art form—it also lends her work a timeless edge that stitches yesterday and today. But maybe even more impactfully, her work unravels the shifting tides and increasing agency of women at the cusp of the 20th century, rendering it exceptionally resonant in today’s push for gender parity.
In curating this catalogue, we seek to foster a deep appreciation for Theresa Babb’s work and to ensure her story endures. We invite readers to feel the historical weight and joy embedded in each photograph, and to stand with us in preserving her legacy in photography and feminist discourse for future generations.
The catalogue was primarily designed using the newly released Snaga by the independent Berlin-based type foundry Lettersoup (founded by Botio Nikoltchev in 2014) in collaboration with Trifon Andreev (an independent type designer, Cyrillic consultant, and researcher). IBM Plex Mono was incorporated as a complementary typeface, adding a nuanced typographic pairing that heightened the overall elegance and visual depth of the catalogue.
