Episode 6

Leveling Up

Suzanne Plunkett in conversation with Tabatha Fireman on her new picture library ‘ShotByWomen’.


This episode is a conversation between fellow photographers Suzanne Plunkett and Tabatha Fireman, the founder of ‘ShotByWomen’. 

‘ShotByWomen’ is a picture library whose mission is to raise the stats in published women-created content, ensuring that future generations are provided with a fairer, more truthful, gender-balanced visual representation of the world.

(Image by Suzanne Plunkett)

Suzanne Plunkett is a veteran photojournalist who has worked as a staff photographer for the Associated Press in New York City where she covered the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 and is known for her iconic photograph taken that day. That photo helped propel her on to assignments in Afghanistan, a three-year stint in Indonesia during which she covered the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and then on to London where she worked as staff for Reuters on one of the world's most competitive news beats before carving a career as a successful freelancer. 

Tabatha Fireman is a freelance photographer who has worked in entertainment news since 1997. She began her career as a darkroom technician at EMI Records. At different points throughout her journey, she worked within the offices of Redferns Music Picture Library and Getty Images. 

In 2019 Tabatha launched Female Perspective as a photo agency representing an all-female roster of talent. Throughout the pandemic she has planned and built the SHOTBYWOMEN platform, which launched on International Women’s Day 2022 as the world’s first international image library to house content created exclusively by women, spanning all areas of photography. 

Episode References:

Female Perspective is a photo agency providing a platform for established women photographers to showcase their work.

SHOTBYWOMEN is a brand new image library filled with exceptional content created exclusively by women and feminine-of-centre photographers from around the globe.

Episode Credits:

Conversation between: Suzanne Plunkett and Tabatha Fireman

Podcast Editor: Suzanne Plunkett  

Podcast subeditorClaudia Leisinger

Introduction: Claudia Leisinger 

Music: Ana Maria Arévalo Gosen (composition), Philipp Quante (piano), Bobby G (drums) 

Podcast Team: Jayme Kaye Gershen, Lina Collado, Nicola Muirhead, Claudia Leisinger.

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Thank you for listening, from the Collective Eye Podcast Team.