Renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz is releasing a new expanded edition of her influential photography book "Women" this fall, 25 years after its original publication. The new two-volume collection from Phaidon combines the original 1999 photographs with recent work spanning from 1993 to today, featuring new essays by feminist icon Gloria Steinem and acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The original "Women" project emerged from Leibovitz's relationship with writer Susan Sontag, whom she met in 1988 during a photo shoot for Sontag's critical work "AIDS and Its Metaphors." Their dinner meeting, for which Leibovitz anxiously prepared by reading Sontag's writings and taking notes, sparked a 15-year relationship that catalyzed the creation of the groundbreaking photography collection. Sontag wrote the introduction to the original volume, stating, "A book of photographs of women must, whether it intends to or not, raise the question of women. There is no equivalent question of men. Men, unlike women, are not a work in progress."

Sontag's concept of "the question of women" represented what she called a "ridiculously large query," but she argued for inclusiveness in representation. "The point is that all the images are valid," she asserted, noting that "a woman may be a cop or a beauty queen or an architect or a housewife or a physicist." While this range of occupations might seem commonplace today, it remains relevant as women continue to be underrepresented in many fields, with only about a quarter of physicists and licensed architects in the United States being female.

The new collection reflects contemporary achievements and ongoing struggles for women's equality. As Leibovitz explains in her introduction, "For this volume, I thought about issues that are important today." The updated photographs include portraits of poet Amanda Gorman, novelist Toni Morrison, television producer Shonda Rhimes on set, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in Washington, D.C. The collection also features Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky in a Maryland pool and Sarah Zorn at The Citadel military college, where she became the first female regimental commander in the school's history.

The new images showcase women across diverse fields and circumstances, from gymnast Simone Biles photographed in Spring, Texas in 2020, to folk singer Joan Baez captured in Woodside, California in 2007. The collection includes war photographer Lynsey Addario in London, former First Lady Michelle Obama in Los Angeles, and botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer in Fabius, New York, all photographed in 2025. Other notable subjects include activist Angela Davis, author Joan Didion, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both alone and with journalist Christiane Amanpour at Columbia University.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, one of the new essayists, reflects on the progress and challenges depicted in the photographs. "That women have made economic and political strides is not in dispute," she writes, "but we are still very far away from the ultimate goal of feminism, which is to make itself redundant." She describes how the new images "feel less like a statement of possibility than of accomplishment—in many, varied forms" and notes that "these images shrug off the cloying and flattening demands of virtue, they are set free, as are our imaginations. We see more clearly the small, exquisite heroism of women."

Gloria Steinem's essay provides historical context about the challenges female photographers faced in the 1970s. She recalls how the hunt for female photographers to contribute to Ms. magazine led her to Leibovitz, describing her as "the rare portrait photographer who was a woman." Steinem explains that while "women could be reportage photographers recording street scenes," they were "not frequently portrait photographers, who required lights and a studio, necessities that were beyond their earning power." She credits Leibovitz with legitimizing her subjects through her attention and unique perspective as a female photographer.

The publication of the new "Women" collection coincides with "Wonderland," an exhibition of Leibovitz's work at the Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation in A Coruña, Spain. The expanded book serves as both a documentation of progress and an acknowledgment of ongoing struggles, maintaining the dynamic that has always been inherent in Leibovitz's work. The collection will be available starting November 4, continuing the photographer's decades-long exploration of women's roles, achievements, and evolving place in society.