Our celebratory tour for International Women’s Day

Last week, The First Women Project celebrated International Women’s day on a national and local scale, kicking off with The Celebrating Women in Business Conference at the British Library on March 5.

As a digital ambassador for the Love Digital Project sponsored by the Government Equalities Office, Anita shared her experience of how the digital age has impacted her life and career to inspire other women to take advantage of digital opportunities now available to pursue their dreams and achieve their goals. The audience of entrepreneurial women were also joined by the eminent Lord Young, and Nicky Morgan MP.

Natasha Innocent, from the Department of Culture commented that it was particularly fitting that Anita was sharing her inspiration behind the First Women Project as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, adding

‘The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Make it Happen and that is just what photographer Anita Corbin is doing with this unique collection of 100 portraits of women in the UK who were ‘first’ in their field of achievement, helping to mark 100 years of women’s suffrage in 2018.’

Next stop for First Women was a more regional forum; the LOVE Digital all-day conference in Exeter. Anita took photographs of the event whilst fellow female entrepreneurs debated some of the inspirations and challenges of the digital age on their rural businesses.

The two events also saw the national launch of three videos of Anita,
designed to highlight the joy of digital photography. The key messages? Digital lets you take more photographs take more risks and experience more creative freedom. Perfect!
View the videos here.

Sunday saw Anita hit the radio waves on London’s urban show, NTS. In honour of International Women’s Day, the show was taken over by the W Project – a group of women in creative industries based in central London.Anita shared her insights on her life in photography, focusing on the First Women project of course – but also sharing stories of her well-known, 1980s iconic image series, Visible Girls.

A nice touch was afforded by a soundtrack of records, all chosen by a handful of the original Visible Girls themselves, that most captured for them the essence of that era’s freedom and possibility. Listen here

So, from national to urban, First Women experienced a busy but inspiring and varied International Women’s Day. And one not without importance for Anita personally. Indeed, on March 8th 1981, 34-years ago, Anita’s very first photograph was printed in The Sunday Times….
How’s that for coincidence!?