Susan Wood's iconic portraits of the most influential women from the 1960s onwards

From images of icons such as Eve Arnold, Diane von Furstenberg and Gloria Steinem to Jane Fonda, Jayne Mansfield and Yoko Ono.

Wood’s photographs were made during years of great social change, and her own career followed a similar trajectory. A born and bred New Yorker, she was involved with the original "Mad Men" of Madison Avenue and later won a Clio, the most sought-after award in advertising.

In 1954 her photographs appeared in the premier issue of Sports Illustrated. Mademoiselle chose her as one of their "Ten Young Women of the Year" in 1961. Throughout the 1960s, '70s and '80s, her work could be seen in Vogue, Life, People and New York magazines.

She was a regular contributor to Look magazine, most notably for a 1969 cover story on John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Wood is also noted for her movie stills. Under contract to Paramount Pictures, United Artists and 20th Century Fox, she was on set during the filming of movies that defined the 1960s such as Easy Rider and Hatari.

Involved in the fight for women’s rights and equality in the 1960s and 1970, Wood was a founding member of the Women’s Forum and counted as friends many of the vanguards of the feminist movement including Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem.

Writes Wood, now 84, in the book’s introduction, "I’m a working woman from an age when women still wondered if we could and/or should work. I remember a woman scientist’s graduation address at Sarah Lawrence College in 1953 recommending we graduates keep some part of our brain actively engaged in an intellectual project even if we visited it only occasionally. 'Picking up knitting' was her analogy. Can you imagine the catcalls and boos someone today would get in response?"

Susan Wood has been represented by Getty Images since 2004. For more information, visit: www.susanwood.com.

Women Portraits: 1960-2000 is published by Pointed Leaf Press.