Practices of resistance: Photography by Japanese women since the 1970s

With an approach that considers the feminist historiographies of the latest decades, in my PhD research I inspect the recent photographic produc-on by Japanese women. In par-cular, I look at how the female authorship in the field developed in the past 50 years despite the historical inaccessibility of photography to women. The star-ng point of this research is the decade of the 1970s, a -me of social and economic transforma-on, when the public ac-ons of protest groups and student collec-ves intensified; the forma-on of alterna-ve all-women divisions, such as Ūman Ribu, contributed to create an awareness of the forms of oppression experienced by women in the Japanese society. These transforma-ons also helped raising aQen-on towards the female ar-sts and exposing the limits of the preexis-ng ar-s-c canons, where the male ar-sts’ predominant posi-ons excluded other subjec-vi-es. Similarly, since its introduc-on in Japan, photography became an eli-st circle mastered only by male producers. The career possibili-es for female professionals were generally ostracized by gender preconcep-ons about women and how unsuitable they were for using a camera. In the last decades of the 20th century, however, an increasing number of women started making their appearance in different areas of the photographic system – exhibi-ons, printed media, compe--ons – and, despite the las-ng unbalance that is s-ll no-ced nowadays, began affirming their existence as professional photographers making images. The research, conducted in archives in Japan, Europe, and US, inspected two main areas: first, the context of Japan from the 1970s onwards, seen through the literature on its sociopoli-cal history and the wri-ngs by feminist ac-vists and gender theorists; second, an analysis of the prac-ces of different female photographers who have opposed to patriarchal views over art and photography.