Just as Tina Barney and Chantal Akerman are celebrated at the Jeu de Paume and Barbara Crane is paid homage at the Center Pompidou, so too is the 27th edition of Paris Photo – the most important photography fair in the world which just ended at the Grand Palais (7-10 November), directed by Florence Bourgeois with the artistic direction of Anna Planas – focused attention on women in the photographic art scene and market.
TO SUPPORT the Elles x Paris Photo program dedicated to international female photographers is the French Ministry of Culture itself, in collaboration with Kering’s Women in Motion. There are fifty-one authors belonging to different generations (35% are under 40 years old) selected by Raphaëlle Stopin, including the Italians Lisetta Carmi (Martini & Ronchetti), Letizia Battaglia, Marialba Russo and Giovanna Borgese (Alberto Damian), Marina Caneve (Montrasio Arte) with the project on the landscape of natural reserves, winner of the Italian Council 2023 and Elisa Montessori represented by the Monitor gallery with various pieces from the Tropismi series (collage of photos from the Seventies with pastel, oil and ink drawings from 2024) and the beautiful artist’s book Grass writing. As for the authors who challenge social preconceptions, the list is long, whether it is the naturalness of a female nude in old age, a theme addressed by Paz Errázuriz, the representation of women in Islamic culture in the work of Sabiha Çimen or activism of Spanish women focused by Pilar Aymerich in the historical period of the political-economic transition between 1975 and 1982.
STARTING FROM THE SURREALIST Dora Maar (Henriette Théodora Markovitch), portrayed in 1946 by Izis, with her solarizations and photomontages: a selection of her photographs is part of the Surréalisme exhibition at the Pompidou. Looking straight at the observer is Maria Chambefort, born Perraud, a well-known nineteenth-century daguerreotypist who loved to define herself as an “artistic photographer”, portraying herself sitting in her studio. A rarity, this daguerreotype in its original frame on sale at the Photo Discovery stand for 100 thousand euros. Even in the photographic language, the self-portrait is a complex form of representation that stimulates different levels of reading.
Paris Photo 2024, Grand Palais, Paris (photo by Manuela De Leonardis)
IDENTITY AND BELONGINGaffirmation and emancipation: the body is the place where the past and the present are written and rewritten. If the Japanese multimedia artist Mari Katayama focuses attention on the body image of the malformation of one’s lower limbs, overturning the concept of beauty and disability as a limit, Hélène Amouzou addresses the theme of dislocation in the self-portraits created over a decade and exile. «I came from Togo to Brussels with my daughter who was little – says Amouzou -. I couldn’t work because I didn’t have the documents and when she was at school I started taking photographs. I couldn’t do anything else. Photographing was a silent way to deal with the situation I was experiencing. I printed myself, in black and white, finding a moment of serenity in the darkroom.”
In her photographs the blur allows the author to visualize the uncertainty of her own existence in the imperceptible emotional border between visible and invisible. A condition that also surfaces in I am showing you how big the sky is. The story of Chiou Taur Wu told by Martina Bacigalupothe latest book published by Martina Bacigalupo, presented at Paris Photo by the publishing house L’Artiere. A tribute that the photographer, member of the Vu’ Agency, pays to her former Taiwanese nanny Chiou Taur Wu with whom she grew up from the age of four.
A VERY HARD LIFE that of the woman who starts smiling again when, in her seventies, she retires and moves to her hometown, finally allowing herself some time for herself, including dance lessons and trips around the world. The book collects the photos that Mrs. Chiou sent to Martina over the years, in which she portrays herself in the most disparate contexts – from the pumpkin plantation near Taipei to the photography studio in Korea where she wears a traditional costume – ironically playing herself playfully. Images that are the codification of a dream in its most genuine staging.
