Some books are promised to be dated. THEY, the book published by the collective Elles x Paris Photo and the editions Textuel on the occasion of the five-year journey dedicated to women photographers, is one of them. Firstly because of its very form: the book, one of the most important channels for disseminating the work of women photographers.
Then, because it echoes theWorld history of women photographers (Textual editions, 2020) by Marie Robert and Luce Lebart, a reference now indispensable, and a new milestone in the history of women photographers. “ Five years is nothing in the history of photography, and yet the last five years represent an upheaval », writes Marie Docher, photographer and member of the collective «La Part des femmes».
Finally – which does not detract from the pleasure! – it is a magnificent object, which looks at itself as much as it reads. The image chosen to illustrate the cover – a photograph signed by Agnès Geoffray – is eloquent and suggestive: a woman seen from the back, whose hair is knotted in a sophisticated chignon, which evokes both the sensitive and the cerebral. An invitation, no doubt, to discover a photographic creation as abundant as exciting.
Watch and discover
From Nazli Abbaspour, Iranian photographer, born in 1975, to Wei Zihan, Chinese photographer, born in 1994, there are 130 in total, whose images amaze as we discover them, and whose remarks complement and enlighten their approach. For each of them, the role of the female figure is central to their work. Whether in their practice (“ women and their strength drive my work ", says Delphine Diallo) or as sources of inspiration (" many women photographers inspire me, explains Valérie Jouve: from Helen Levitt, Dorothea Lange, Diane Arbus, Germaine Krull to Claude Cahun, Suzanne Lafont, Sally Mann and Jane Evelyn Atwood, to name a few ").
These photographers, coming from geographical horizons and temporal universes of great diversity, reveal above all in the book a part of themselves, the most intimate: their creation, evoking the engine of their practice, their obsessions, their desires, their struggles… A crossing of the contemporary female photographic creation to discover any business ceaantes.
In echo, the curators of the different editions of the course have a different perspective that, to be theoretical, nevertheless sheds light on the assumed subjectivity of their choice of women on women’s creations. Because yes, the particularity of «Elles x Paris Photo» is to call on eminent professionals to design a female career. The book gives the floor to Fannie Escoulen, Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, Nathalie Herschdorfer, Federica Chiocchetti, Fiona Rogers, each of them being curator of an edition of the route, as well as Susanna Gallégo Cuesta, director of the Musée des Beaux-ArtsArts de Nancy, and Marie Docher, activist of the first hour.
Question and understand
According to Susanna Gállego Cuesta, «Elles x Paris Photo» brought a breath of fresh air to the world of women photographers in 2018. « This broadening of perspectives is welcome and these images that show us other points of view are jubilant ” she said, before she remembered the not-so-distant time when women photographers were “ invisibilized In 1988, a collective of artists, Guerrillas Girlshad posters on the windows of SoHo’s art galleries in New York. “ Advantages of being a female artist: be sure that whatever art you do, it will be qualified as feminine ', they said, among other corrosive formulas.
In preparing for the 2020 edition, Karolina Ziebinska-Lewandowska, director of the Warsaw Museum, recalls that there were several names she did not know or for which she had only vague references. « The fact that I was then forced to look at each of them proved fascinating and important "she writes. By compiling a list of five types of images—bright images, dreamy images, transformed images, militant images and witness images—she came up with the choice of 50 out of 180 artists. « I was able to see once again that, if one wanted to, the history of photography could be written through female names only ".
«Highlighting the shadow of photography» was the theme of the 2021 edition, curated by Nathalie Herschdorfer, director of the Musée Photo Élysée in Lausanne. In this case, she particularly focused on a case study, that of the Czechs László and Lucia Moholy-Nagy who, between 1923 and 1928, revolutionized the art of the photogram Today, László Moholy-Nagy is celebrated as a great name in 20th century photography, but who remembers Lucia whose “ the role in the invention of the technique that made the glory of Moholy-Nagy was decisive "?"
Today, it is imperative, according to Federica Chiocchetti, director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Le Locle, curator of the 2022 edition of the route, “ to involve and challenge patriarchy to put women artists back into history, collections, museums and fairs, without isolating them in a self-referential discourse To achieve this, the Commissioner proposes to: build a playful, ironic and inclusive resistance A clear book, decidedly, whose story has only just begun.
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