Abigail Heyman

Abigail Heyman (August 1, 1942 – May 28, 2013) was an American photographer, photojournalist, and educator. She was the a department director and a teacher at the International Center of Photography in Manhattan, in the mid-1980s until the 1990s. She published Growing Up Female: A Personal Photo-Journal in 1974.

Early life and education

Heyman was born in Danbury, Connecticut, to real estate developer Lazarus Heyman and Annette Heyman. Abigail was the second of two children. Abigail was the younger sister to her brother, businessman Samuel J. Heyman, who was born March 1, 1939.

She attended Sarah Lawrence College with intentions of becoming a writer, and graduated in 1964. For the book, she photographed women in their everyday, limited roles. There are young girls playing with dolls, housewives caring for screaming infants, strippers, and young women waiting to be asked to dance. She called the work "one feminist's point of view" of the narrow range of choices women had in life. In the most controversial and striking images, she photographed herself having an abortion. The book sold over 35,000 copies, which is rare for photograph collections. She soon after published another book, this time focusing on working women: Butcher, Baker, Cabinetmaker (1978). Later on, in 1987, Heyman published another book titled, Dreams and Schemes: Love and Marriage in Modern Times. This book contained black and white photographs with whole extended families of the bride and groom's children from former marriages.

The wedding project

Along with her other responsibilities related to her company, Heyman took the time to focus on wedding photography as a personal project. This project developed from her work documenting family life and her reflections in deciding to marry a second time. In attending over 200 weddings by the age of 44, Heyman discovered that every wedding has its own story. She sought to find this story, along with the reasoning as to why people get married. Heyman was also a photojournalist, her work appearing in Time, Life, Ms., Harpers and The New York Times Magazine.

In the mid-1980s she was director of the documentary and photojournalism department at the International Center of Photography (now International Center of Photography) in Manhattan. Though her work is most identified with the Feminist Movement, the specificity and deeply psychological nature of what she captured transcended the movement itself. As Ms. Liftin told The New York Times this June, "As a feminist, she was not so much about marching. She took pictures that showed what the marching was about."

Personal life

Heyman married for the first time at the age of 23, after graduating from college. She then married her second husband in 1978, with whom she had a son named Lazar Bloch.

Archive and legacy

Heyman's photographic work is preserved at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, New Jersey.