Hidden (Hi)stories: New Perspectives of Women’s Photographies

MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography announces the Greek edition of Fast Forward: Women in Photography, which is organised in partnership with the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and the University of Sunderland.

The theme for the fifth conference, to be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, will focus on the hidden (hi)stories of women’s photographies seeking to reflect on current debates on gender justice.

Writing about the recognition of ‘women’ as a political subject and questioning who has the power to define what ‘women’ means, Silvia Federici urged: “We must identify the world of antagonistic politics and power relations by which our bodies are constituted and rethink the struggles that have taken place in opposition to the ‘norm’ if we are to devise strategies for change” (2020: 10). And indeed, as Françoise Vergès argued, if we are to “re-humanise the world” and fight against the ways “femonationalism” and “femoimperialism” service neoliberalism (2021:17), we need to move beyond mainstream narratives and normative histories, beyond relational notions of centres and peripheries and bring to the fore the hidden stories of anonymous women, those identifying as women and non-binary people told by and through photography.

The conference aims to explore the following questions and beyond:

• How can photography demystify the socio-culturally constructed notion of ‘women’ and advocate its expansion to include transgender, gender-fluid and non-binary/non-conforming identities?
• How can we understand women’s photographies considering the often oppositional diversities of prescriptive identities, socially constructed performances of gender and reproductive labour, racialisation, enslavement, and colonisation in different social contexts and historical periods?
• In what ways may photography become a weapon for equality, reproductive justice, deracialisation, and freedom for women, those identifying as women and non-binary people against the oppressive power of heteronormative patriarchy, the state, and capitalism?
• What are the (hi)stories of women in front and behind the camera that are silenced or disregarded from normative art histories and institutions? What are the fundamental barriers in such systems and how may women’s practices be included in multiple narratives rather than being confined to gendered interpretations?
• How has the “performative turn” affected the curatorial practices of exhibiting women’s photographies and how have their unknown (hi)stories been represented in museums?
• What would just and inclusive histories of women’s photography look like from a transnational, decolonial perspective?

Organising Committee / Convenors:

Professor Anna Fox (Fast Forward, University for the Creative Arts)

Maria Kapajeva (Fast Forward, University for the Creative Arts & Estonian Academy of Arts)

Dr Iro Katsaridou (MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography & Hellenic Open University)

Dr Areti Leopoulou (MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography)

Professor Alexandra Moschovi (University of Sunderland)

Dr Penelope Petsini (University of West Attica & Panteion University)

The conference is to be framed by an exhibition exploring the complex articulations of women’s photographies in Greece, which is to be presented at MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography in May 2024.

THE PROGRAMME

Friday, May 17th

14:00 – 14:25 Welcome and Introductions

Panel One

Decolonial Perspectives: Redefining Narratives in Transnational Photographic Histories

14:25 – 14:30 Introduction to the Panel One speakers by Angela Dimitrakaki

14:30 – 14:50 Amalia Caputo (USA / Venezuela): The Ruin and the Body in Selected Works of Venezuelan Contemporary Women Photographers 

14:50 – 15:10 Sreerupa Bhattacharya (India): “Always with A Camera”: Mira Chowdhury’s Writings on Photography

15:10 – 15:30 Lissa Mitchell (New Zealand): Through Shaded Glass: Women and Photography in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840 to 1960 and Beyond

15:30 – 15:50 Aldeide Delgado (USA): Feminist Archipelagos: Remapping Photography Art History from a Relational Lens

15:50 – 16:30 Panel discussion, chaired by Angela Dimitrakaki

16.30-17.00 Coffee break 

17.00-18.00 Keynote by Françoise Vergès (France): Sisters, Sisters, Do You See What’s Coming?

The following-up Q&A session with Françoise Vergès is led by Angela Dimitrakaki

Saturday, May 18th

Panel Two

Empowering Visions, Acting Identities: Photography in and as Activism

10:00 – 10:05 Introduction to the Panel Two speakers by Areti Leopoulou

10:05 – 10:25 Emma Campbell (UK): Photography as a Site of Protest and Resistance in the North/ern Irish Abortion Rights Movement

10:25 – 10:45 Yang li (China / Germany): Connect the Hidden Self with Anonymous Others: Chinese Female Photographers and Women in Photographs  

10:45 – 11:05 Lesly Deschler Canossi (USA): Interconnected Bodies: Women, Water & Photographic Urgency

11:05 – 11:25 Rosy Martin (UK): Embodiment, Gender and Ageing

11:25 – 12:05 Panel discussion, chaired by Areti Leopoulou

12.05-13.00 Lunch break

Panel Three

Institutionalising Women’s Photographic Heritage: Archival and Museum Strategies

13:00 – 13:05 Introduction to the Panel Three speakers by Iro Katsaridou

13:05 – 13:25 Sandra Križić Roban (Croatia): To Register What Has Been Lost, Learn from the Forgotten, Inaccessible and Discarded 

13:25 – 13:45 Līga Goldberga (Latvia): Archive as Ego Document: Exploring Curatorial Strategies that Activate Care Labour for Women’s Photographic Heritage

13:45 – 14:05 Giulia Brandinelli, Chiara Pompa, Giorgia Ravaioli, and Benedetta Susi (Italy): Uncovering the Legacy of Italian Feminist Photography: The Untold (Hi)story of Guido da San Giuliano and Sfinge (Italian Feminist Photography (IFP)

14:05 – 14:25 Clara Masnatta (Argentina / Italy / Germany): Archivo de la Memoria Trans: Artivism for Gender Justice in Argentina 

14:25 – 15:05 Panel discussion, chaired by Iro Katsaridou

15:05 – 15:30 Coffee break

Panel Four

Hidden Herstories: Unveiling Forgotten Narratives

15:30 – 15:35 Introduction to the Panel Four speakers by Penelope Petsini

15:35 – 15:55 Linda Bertelli & Agnese Ghezzi (Italy): Fotografiste: The Hidden Histories of Italian Women in Photography (1839-1939)

15:55 – 16:15 Evi Papadopoulou (Greece): Obscure (Art) Histories: City, Photography, and Gender in post-war Greece 

16:15 – 16:35 Orla Fitzpatrick (Ireland): Status: A Feminist News Magazine: Photography, Feminism and Publishing in Early 1980s Ireland 

16:35 – 17:05 Panel discussion, chaired by Penelope Petsini

17:05 – 17:30 Coffee break

17:30 – 18:30 Keynote by Alexandra Moschovi (Greece / UK): (Her)Stories, (Her)Photographies, (Her)Testimonies: The Greek Paradigm

Sunday, May 19th

Panel Five

Hidden Herstories II: Rediscovering Women’s Photography 

10:00 – 10:05 Introduction to the Panel Five speakers by Arabella Plouviez

10:05 – 10:25 Marta López-Beriso Photographer Alejandrina Alba: a Case Study on Inclusion in 19th Century Photography Studios

10:25 – 10:45 Heather Diack (Canada): Broken Glass: Photography, Fragments, Feminisms

10:45 – 11:05 Rolf Sachsse (Germany): Lucia Moholy: Not a Photographer but a Writer 

11:05 – 11:25 David Bate (UK): Wartime Follies (Therese Bonney, USA, 1894-1978)

11:25 – 12:05 Panel discussion, chaired by Arabella Plouviez

12:05 – 13:00 Lunch break

Panel Six

De/re/gendering Photographic Practice

13:00 – 13:05 Introduction to the Panel Six speakers by Anna Fox

13:05 – 13:25 Effie Paleologou (Greece): Roaming the City at Night

13:25 – 13: 45 Özlem Şimşek (Turkey): The Archive of a Fictional Turkish Avant-garde Artist 

13:45 – 14:05 Helen McGhie (UK): De-masculinising Astrophotography

14:05 – 14:25 Juanrie Strydom (UK): The Invisible and Newly Visible hi(stories) of Women Photographers with Disabilities

14:25 – 15:05 Panel discussion, chaired by Anna Fox

15:05 – 15:30 Coffee break

Panel Seven

Framing Women’s Labour in Photography and its Industries

15:30 – 15:35 Introduction to the Panel Seven speakers by Alexandra Moschovi

15:35 – 15:55 Sabeena Gadihoke (India): Whatever Happened to Sindhu Katare? Failure and the Spectre of Kodak Women in India 

15:55 – 16:15 Katarzyna Gębarowska (Poland): Forgotten Labor: Revealing the Significance of Women’s Role in Poland’s Photochemical Industry

16:15 – 16:35 Marianna Karali (Greece): Photography as a Means of Social Emancipation for Women in 19th century Greece (1860-1914)

16:35 – 16:55 Audrey Leblanc (France): Métiers de femmes’: In Service of the Organization of Press Agencies’ Image Collections for the Illustrated Magazines Market, 1960s-1980s”. The example of the Black Star Collection

16:55 – 17:35 Panel discussion, chaired by Alexandra Moschovi

17:35 – 18:00 Key observations by the conference committee