Single Mother, Pioneering Photographer: the Remarkable Life of Bayard Wootten – The New York Times

In 1904, a photographer in North Carolina lent a 4×5 camera to a divorced single mother. He shook his head and muttered several times that she’d “never make the grade.” One year later, he viewed her as his competitor and took back his equipment. So, Bayard (pronounced BY-ard) Wootten, who until then had supported her family by selling small paintings and drawings, went out and bought her own camera.