Protests in Paris and Martine Frank
Images, Press and Feminist Struggles
Photographic exhibit until March 7, 2027
In the 1970s, Martine Franck (1938-2012) photographed feminist struggles, primarily in Paris. As a woman photographer, the attention she paid to the mobilizations of the Mouvement de libération des femmes (MLF) protests in Paris and elsewhere shaped her outlook on the social world and would durably orient her body of work.
Martine Franck, Parade on 5th Avenue, « Women’s March for Equality », New York, United States, 1971
The question of images became central to feminist struggles in reaction to media representations within a dominant visual culture, one that objectified women’s bodies and could distort or discredit their demands. As a founding member of the Viva agency (1972), Martine Franck shared this vigilance toward images. Viva was conceived as a « refuge for photographers who understand the reach of the image, know its informative power, refuse the uses that could be made of it, and do not want to escape their social reality. »
This exhibition presents largely unpublished photographs that highlight the collective dimension of a feminist visual culture in the 1970s. This is expressed through the depiction of mobilizations, protests in Paris, and also through the rise of the feminist press, which became a laboratory for these struggles. Periodicals also served as a privileged medium for the circulation of images.
Martine Franck, Manifestation du 1er mai, Paris, 1977
From the 1980s onward, feminism became institutionalized, and Martine Franck produced the series « Des femmes et la création » [Women and Creation] and later « Des métiers et des femmes » [Jobs and Women] as part of public commissions. Her relationship to feminism gradually became more individual, but remained a defining force in her work.
Enjoy this exhibition THE OTHER CORONATION at Fondation HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON 79 rue des Archives – 75003 Paris
https://www.henricartierbresson.org/en/actualites/upcoming-exhibition-at-the-fondation-martine-franck-images-press-and-feminist-struggles/
Who was Henri Cartier-Bresson?
Born in Chanteloup, just outside Rouen, in 1908, Henri Cartier-Bresson began studying painting at the André Lhote atelier in Paris before he turned to photography. In 1931, following a year in Africa, he purchased his first Leica. His work was exhibited and published, first abroad and then in France, starting in 1933. He then traveled in Europe, to Mexico and the United States. Interested in filmmaking, he joined the Nykino group and collaborated with Jean Renoir in 1936 and 1939. He produced three documentaries on the Spanish Civil War in the same time period. Taken prisoner on June 23, 1940, he managed to escape in 1943, after two previously unsuccessful attempts. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York presented an exhibition of his work in 1947, the same year that he created the Magnum Photos agency, along with Robert Capa, David Seymour, George Rodger and William Vandivert. He then spent three years in the East. Back in Europe, he published his first book, Images à la Sauvette (The Decisive Moment), in 1952. After this, he traveled on numerous occasions and devoted himself to drawing starting the early 1970s. Dubbed “l’œil du siècle” (eye of the century), Cartier-Bresson bore witness to the great events of the 20th century: Gandhi’s funeral in India, the last days of the Kuomintang in China, first photographs of the USSR after the death of Stalin… At his passing in 2004, he endowed the history of photography with an inimitable legacy, which is still subject to new interpretations.