Photography and the Feminist Movements. The Case of the Journal Des femmes en mouvements (1978-1982)
The 1970s were a decisive period for women’s appropriation of photography. Amid a feminist revitalization, activists oscillated between the rejection and reappropriation of image culture. The analysis of the journal Des femmes en mouvements, published amidst a flourishing feminist press, reveals how these women identified themselves as active agents in the struggle for representation. Supported by the women’s publishing company Éditions des femmes that had arisen from the Psychoanalysis and Politics faction of the Women’s Liberation movement, the editorial committee of Des Femmes en mouvement created and distributed new artistic and militant works. They sought to represent in images the collective struggles and life of women, establishing photographic workshops, new iconographic motifs, and prioritizing work by women photographers. They thus paved the way for visual feminism.
Collectif des femmes, photographie publiée dans Des femmes en mouvements hebdo, no 41, 15-22 août 1980, p. 1. Paris, Archives MLF-Psychanalyse et politique.© Archives MLF-Psychanalyse et politique, Paris
Angèle Ferrere holds a doctorate in the history and aesthetics of photography and is a member of the AIAC laboratory of the University of Paris VIII Vincennes Saint-Denis. After completing her thesis in aesthetics on construction site photography, she won the Louis Roederer scholarship, and she later received a postdoctoral scholarship from the University of Paris VIII for her study on urban and peri-urban spaces through the lens of women photographers in France in the years 1970–1995. She teaches the history and aesthetics of photography at the University of Paris VIII and at the École de Condé Paris. A historian of photography, Véra Léon is a lecturer at CY Cergy Paris Université. After her PhD on the history of the schools and professions of photography from a perspective of gender and social class (2nd prize, Robert Mallet Prize in the history of education), she has worked on gender and photography at the Institut pour la photographie, and curated an artistic programme on these issues for Université Paris Cité. Numerous articles and book chapters have been printed in journals such as Images du travail. Travail des images, Photographica, Agone, and Clio. Femmes, genre, histoire.
Keywords: feminism, media, illustrated press, visual culture, women photographers, matrimoine
Citation: Angèle Ferrere, Véra Léon, « Un féminisme visuel ?Photographie et mouvements féministes. Le cas de la revue Des femmes en mouvements (1978-1982) », Transbordeur. Photographie histoire société, no. 7, 2023, pp. 174-187.