Women In Motion: dedicating one month to women photographers

Women In Motion and Elles X Paris Photo

From November 9 to 12, photography will take over the Grand Palais Ephémère at the twenty-sixth edition of Paris Photo – the world's leading photo fair and must-attend event for artists, institutions, curators, collectors and journalists, not forgetting photography lovers and enthusiasts.

For the fourth consecutive year, Women In Motion lends its support to Elles X Paris Photo. This art fair seeks to recognize women photographers and encourage exhibiting galleries to highlight these women artists through a selection of works and interviews. This year's program was commissioned by Fiona Rogers, the inaugural Curator of the Parasol Foundation Women in Photography project at the Victoria and Albert Museum, aimed at supporting women in photography across acquisitions, commissions, displays and events. Rogers selected 38 artists, including Nan Goldin, Graciela Iturbide and Ishiuchi Miyako – shown at Kyotographie in April 2023, as part of a Kering-sponsored exhibition – as well as Laia Abril, Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro supported in 2016 by Women In Motion and Pixy Liao, Prix Jimei x Madame Figaro, also promoted by Kering's program in 2018.
 

Producing a book to honor five years of support for women photographers 

To mark the fifth anniversary of the Elles x Paris Photo program, Éditions Textuel publishes ELLES, a work assembling the personal stories of artists selected over the years, not to mention insights from the curators involved in the initiative since its inception. The book showcases 130 contemporary photographers who share their voices and images, revealing the driving force behind their creations, their obsessions, their desires and their struggles while celebrating influential women photographers. Together with Women In Motion and the French Ministry of Culture, they have created a rich and inspiring fresco.  

Women In Motion honors Paz Errázuriz

Live from the Maison de l'Amérique Latine, Paz Errázuriz, Histoires Inachevées presents 120 of the Chilean photographer's prints from 15 series including three previously published: Próceres (1983), Sepur Zarco (2016) and Ñuble (2019). The exhibition also houses her iconic series La Manzana de Adán, produced between 1982 and 1987.

Born in 1944 in Santiago (Chile), Paz Errázuriz has spent most of her career documenting people who live in a separate and even parallel universe. Captured often in confined spaces, Errázuriz explores the marginal existence of figures such as circus performers, wrestlers, transvestites and prostitutes, vagabonds and people with a mental illness. Her poetic black-and-white portraits serve to denounce social dictates, homing in on the marginalization that renders some segments of society invisible with a profound observation of the human condition, to the point of subverting the conventions of visual order.

This is Paz Errázuriz's first major solo exhibition at a Paris cultural institution. Joining forces with Women In Motion, the event will publish the photographer's first monograph published in French, with an English version, both edited by the Atelier EXB. In 2017, Errázuriz was awarded the Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro, an endeavor that also partners with Kering's in-house program.

Paz Errázuriz, Histoires Inachevées
September 8 till January 24, 2024
Commissioned by Béatrice Andrieux, an independent curator for contemporary art and photography
Maison de l'Amérique Latine
217 Boulevard Saint-Germain, 75007 Paris, France
Open Monday to Friday (10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.) and Saturdays (2:00 to 6:00 p.m.).
Free of charge. 

Women In Motion honors Julia Margaret Cameron

The Musée du Jeu de Paume currently plays host to Arresting Beauty: Julia Margaret Cameron, France's first large-scale retrospective devoted to the British artist and precursor of modern-day photographers.

Julia Margaret Cameron was born in 1815, in Kolkata, into a well-to-do family dividing their time between England and India. She was first introduced to photography in 1864 at the age of 48, before embarking on a 12-year career. Strongly criticized at the time, Cameron's style has since emerged as the hallmark of a visionary, revolutionizing photography as we know it. She rejected the sharp precision prised by her contemporaries, often including scratches, smudges and other traces of her artistic process on her negatives and prints. The exhibit unveils some one hundred captivating photographs, spanning Cameron's early experiments, her historical and literary allegories, as well as an impressive gallery of contemporary portraits.

Julia Margaret Cameron would regularly create portraits of her niece, Julia Jackson, who became mother to a certain Adeline in 1882. Better known by her pen name, in 1926, Virginia Woolf published an account of her great-aunt. Endorsed by Women In Motion, a special one-off podcast was recorded for the exhibition. It features the French actress and film director Clémence Poésy who recounts Cameron's remarkable life through the words of Woolf. Happy listening! 

Julia Margaret Cameron: Arresting beauty 
October 10, 2023, to January 28, 2024
Musée du Jeu de Paume 
1, Place de la Concorde, 75001 Paris, France
Open Tuesdays (11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.) and Wednesday to Sunday (11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.) 
 

Headlining women photographers

Lastly, November in the French capital is also a chance to admire large-format photographs by the late and brilliant Sabine Weiss.

Women In Motion staged an original poster campaign to showcase the Women In Motion Award winners for photography with their portraits and self-portraits adorning the walls of Paris' 1st arrondissement. From September 2023 to February 2024, various works will be exhibited at Rue du Louvre, reflecting each photographer's unique perspective.

After magnifying the creations of the 2019 Award winner, Susan Meiselas, the stage is set for Sabine Weiss. Learn more.