49 Inspiring Vintage Photos of Extraordinary Women

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The Dying Swan, Anna Pavlova (1905)

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As would-be photographers, sometimes we’d like to add drama to our pictures to fuel our imagination and get our viewers to feel some kind of emotion. The Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova, of the renowned Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes, manages to stir a lot of strong emotions not only with her graceful steps on the stage but also with her photos.

The daughter of a Jewish soldier and a laundrywoman, Anna’s first years in classical ballet training were incredibly difficult because she had long limbs, thin ankles, and severely arched feet which contrasted with the ideal small and compact bodies favored for ballerinas at the time. Despite the challenges and even the bullying by fellow students, Anna persisted and persevered, learned from the greatest ballet virtuosos and continued to improve her technique until she became the principal artist of the world’s leading ballet companies. Anna is most recognized for her solo dance, The Dying Swan, a ballet that she has performed 4,000 times and which has influenced modern interpretations of Odette in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.