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National Geographic's pioneeringfemale photographers reveal all

Leading Women connects you to extraordinary women of our time. Each week, we profile two women atthe top of their field, exploring their careers, lives and ideas. (CNN) -- An elderly man stares forlornly at his feet, surrounded by twisted reindeer carcasses,their matted blood stark against a field of endless snow.He clutches a knife, and at first glance you'd be forgiven for thinking he caused the carnagehimself.Instead, the two reindeer locked antlers in battle, and unable to untangle themselves, starved todeath over many days.Sven Skaltje, the herder in the haunting photo, discovered their entwined bodies and finally cutthem apart. Erika Larsen , a 37-year-old American photographer living with the mysterious Arctictribe, caught the moment forever.

Larsen is one of 11 female National Geographic photojournalists whose remarkable images are

now on display in a new exhibition in Washington D.C., called -- aptly enough -- "Women of

Vision."

From Larsen's dramatic images of Scandinavian tribes people, to Stephanie Sinclair's intimate

photographs of Yemeni child brides, and Beverly Joubert's action shots of leopards in the wild, the

exhibition delves deep into hidden communities, often in some of the most inhospitable

environments on the planet.

"You must have a certain amount of resilience and courage to be a photographer in general, andperhaps especially to be a photographer for a magazine like National Geographic," said the

show's curator and senior photo editor, Elizabeth Krist.

"We put people into the field for quite long times -- eight weeks would be the average."

Women's work?

Featuring almost 100 images taken since 2000, the exhibition is a world away from when first

female staff photographer, Kathleen Revis, started working in the 1950s.

The male chief of the photographic lab at the time had some advice for Revis: "If you find the

going too tough, why not run over to Paris for a weekend and get some new clothes -- I

understand that is good for a woman's morale."It's enough to make any feminist's blood boil. But as Krist explains, "Unfortunately, it was really

characteristic of the time."

Indeed, in the 125-year-history of National Geographic, a magazine which prides itself on

intrepid exploration, there have been four female staff photographers, compared to around 50

men.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/leading-women/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/leading-women/http://erikalarsenphoto.com/http://erikalarsenphoto.com/http://erikalarsenphoto.com/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/?rptregcta=join_np&rptregcampaign=20130927_modalpopup_membership_hp#close-modalhttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/?rptregcta=join_np&rptregcampaign=20130927_modalpopup_membership_hp#close-modalhttp://wovexhibition.org/http://wovexhibition.org/http://wovexhibition.org/http://wovexhibition.org/http://wovexhibition.org/photographers/erika-larsenhttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/erika-larsenhttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/erika-larsenhttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/stephanie-sinclairhttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/stephanie-sinclairhttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/stephanie-sinclairhttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/beverly-jouberthttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/beverly-jouberthttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/beverly-jouberthttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/beverly-jouberthttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/stephanie-sinclairhttp://wovexhibition.org/photographers/erika-larsenhttp://wovexhibition.org/http://wovexhibition.org/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/?rptregcta=join_np&rptregcampaign=20130927_modalpopup_membership_hp#close-modalhttp://erikalarsenphoto.com/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/leading-women/

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"At National Geographic there probably was more of a sense that people needed to be really

tough to do some of these stories on the other side of the world. And it was much harder for a

woman to counter these societal norms and be on her own in a lot of remote areas," said Krist.

"Now, seeing all these women working in really difficult conditions -- not just conflict but also in

the middle of epidemics, facing wild animals, political repression, severe climates. It really showswhat women are capable of, it's a direct answer to the person who said that to Kathleen Revis."

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