Photobook Feminist Dialogues 2026

Meetings and initiatives on the photobook as a women’s artistic and photographic practice

Photobooks are a tool for giving photography an accessible and democratic dimension, as well as a vehicle for the dissemination and sharing of feminist and women’s practices. This second edition of the series will feature figures active in the worlds of photojournalism, women’s movements, and feminisms, alongside photographers who have made publishing their mission and profession. The act of publishing is a political act, and the discussions will address the different ways in which this action can be understood.

The Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne was the first library in Italy to begin acquiring photobooks created or published by women, and today holds internationally recognized photobooks that are not available in other public libraries. In 2025, these holdings began to be further promoted within the framework of the library’s cultural programming.

The dialogues are conceived as a method of reflection, research, and engagement for both participants and anyone wishing to join the conversation.

Wednesday, June 3, 2026, 6:00 pm

Photobook Feminist Dialogues: Donne è Bello / Liliana Barchiesi

A book that gathers and synthesizes the work of Liliana Barchiesi, “a militant photographer within the women’s movement,” as described in the text by Lea Melandri. Active in Milan since the 1970s, together with Giovanna Calvenzi and others she was part of the “Collettivo Donne Fotoreporter.” A form of activism that speaks directly to the present day, as Liliana Barchiesi writes about the book project:

“Today, a new emerging feminism formed by young people engaging with previous histories and experiences gives reason for hope, but it is undeniable that the path remains difficult and still has to be built. The project of this book stems not so much from the need to tell my story as a photographer, but from the desire to share memory and emotions, in the hope of contributing to that better world for which we have worked with such passion, and will continue to work.”

The book thus fully emerges as a public tool for feminist activism.

Introduction by Anna Pramstrahler, head of the Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne.

Sonia Lenzi, photographer and artist, in dialogue with Liliana Barchiesi, photographer, and Giovanna Calvenzi, critic and curator.

October 9, 2026, 6:00 pm

Photobook Feminist Dialogues: Noi, altre / Immagini e storie di donne

Photographs by Marina Guerra & Nino Monastra

A photobook overlooked by critics, placing at its center photographs, texts, and oral testimonies resulting from research conducted between 1974 and 1977 in the Bassa Romagna area to document women’s working conditions. As stated in the introduction:

“These women, always doubly exploited by the patriarchal rural society to which they belong — a society whose agricultural, artisanal, and cooperative forms of production have in recent decades merged with a lively small industry, a society in which the relationship between women and men has only rarely become a free relationship — these women are far more mature than their male companions, often spoiled, childish, and above all never truly free. In periods of our history marked by intense tensions and open conflict, they were able to play an important and irreplaceable role, even though they have always been excluded from written history.”

The meeting will revisit the work of photographer Marina Guerra, active within the left-wing press of the period, and place it in relation to present-day issues.

Introduction by Anna Pramstrahler, head of the Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne.

Sonia Lenzi, photographer and artist, in dialogue with Benedetta Susi, researcher, and Milena Schiavina, expert in labor and women’s rights issues.

Tuesday, December 1, 2026, 6:00 pm

Photobook Feminist Dialogues: Palermo Publishing / Leporello. A conversation on publishing practice

A discussion on women’s publishing practices with Michela Palermo, photographer and founder of Palermo Publishing in 2022, and Chiara Capodici, who opened Leporello in Rome in 2017, a bookstore specializing in photobooks. Publishing and bookselling practices become ways of giving voice to a “marginal gaze,” challenging traditional narratives and fostering a rich and inclusive cultural dialogue, both among published titles and among those selected for the bookstore.

Recent publications include Whereupon, connected to the New York queer scene and based on the archive of photographer Allen Frame, and Viaggio in Sicilia di Lisetta Carmi, published in collaboration with the Museo Civico di Castelbuono (Palermo), dedicated to the final photographic reportage by the Genoese photographer Lisetta Carmi (1924–2022). The work moves away from postcard-like images of the Sicilian coast to capture a Sicily marked by dignity and intimacy.

Additional titles connected to feminist activism will be presented and discussed during the meeting.

Introduction by Anna Pramstrahler, head of the Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne.

Sonia Lenzi, photographer and artist, in dialogue with Michela Palermo, photographer and publisher, and Chiara Capodici, visual researcher and bookseller.