Elizabeth Herman and Celeste Sloman
Representative Lauren Underwood, Democrat of Illinois. Redefining Representation: The Women of the 116th Congress. January 2019. The 2018 midterm elections brought a seismic change; for the first time, more than 100 women serve in the House — out of 435 seats — and members of color were elected in more states than ever before.
Just over a century ago, Jeannette Rankin of Montana won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first woman ever elected to federal office. In 1917, 128 years after the first U.S. Congress convened, she was sworn into its 65th session. One hundred and two years later, one has become 131 — the number of women serving in both chambers of the 116th Congress. The New York Times photographed all but one for this historic project. For most of recorded American history, political power has looked a certain way. But the 2018 midterm elections brought a seismic change; for the first time, more than 100 women serve in the House — out of 435 seats — and members of color were elected in more states than ever before. This series documents the women of the 116th Congress. Like the work of Kehinde Wiley, who painted Barack Obama’s presidential portrait, these photographs evoke the imagery we are used to seeing in the halls of power, but place the people not previously seen as powerful starkly in the frames. Portraits of these women are a testament to what power looks like in 2019 — and the possibilities of what it may look like in the years to come.
The New York Times
