On November 15, 2018, I gave a presentation entitled La photographie aujourd’hui : la suprématie de la femme-objet ? (Photography Today: The Supremacy of the Female Object) during the international workshop Le corps dans tous ses éclats (The Body in All Its Forms), organized by Régine Atzenhoffer and Margaret Gillespie at the University of Franche-Comté. This event brought together researchers from diverse backgrounds to explore representations of the body in visual arts and contemporary culture.
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Presentation reference:
Photography Today: The Supremacy of the Female Object?
Presentation for the workshop The Body in All Its Forms at the University of Franche-Comté, organized by Régine Atzenhoffer and Margaret Gillespie.
The image of women in contemporary photography: between reification and emancipation
The issue of the objectification of women in photographic imagery raises tensions between celebration of the body and visual alienation. In this presentation, I examined how fashion photography, advertising, and contemporary art play with these codes, oscillating between the perpetuation of stereotypes and critical subversion.
Through an analysis of emblematic works, I explored three main themes:
- The persistence of the female-object in the image industry: from bodily idealization to the commodification of the female body.
- Artistic strategies of resistance: how photographers and performers subvert these norms by reclaiming the image of the female body.
- The influence of digital technologies and social media: new perspectives, new injunctions, and new forms of self-representation.
A reflection on shifting perspectives
The aim of this presentation was to shed light on the mechanisms of visual domination and to explore how art and contemporary photography deconstruct these cultural legacies. This discussion made it possible to question the role of the gaze in shaping female identities and the ways in which photography contributes to current debates on gender and body representation.