Founded in 2017, The Girls of Photography are the first professional women’s network working for photography, with nearly 280 members and 30 different professions. They contribute to decompartmentalizing their professions to better represent them, promote women photographers to the public, institutions and the media, and improve working conditions in the sector.
Mentoring: a recognition journey for women photographers
Wishing to improve the integration of women in the field of photography, The Girls of Photography are organizing, in 2019 and 2021, two editions of the Observatory of Gender Diversity, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and the program Women in Motion from Kering. These two studies conclude that there is a profound disparity in recognition between men and women. In 2020, The Girls of Photography launches the Mentoring program as a response to this observation.
Spread over 15 months, this program benefits five women photographers accompanied by a pair of godmothers, experts in the artistic and commissioning fields. Designed as a career accelerator, the winners benefit from the network, resources and methodologies of the association and an endowment of 1,500 euros. A restitution exhibition, The Experimentalsis organized at the end of the program.
A laboratory of ideas renewed for a third edition
Among the 298 applications received, five winners were chosen by a jury made up of members of the Filles de la Photo.
Soum Eveline Bonkoungou whose project My Brothers and Sisters addresses the notion of fraternity and cohesion within Burkinabe communities residing in France. The photographer constructs another narrative around the diaspora by exploring shared experiences, common cultures and solidarity that transcends borders.
Godmothers : Marie Dathanat, Art buyer and artist agent, and Anne Degroux, deputy director of the festival Women expose themselves.
Claire Delfino whose project Archipelago of care continues a reflection on child psychiatry, already initiated in 2022 for the major photojournalism commission from the National Library of France. This time, she will be interested in psychological support outside the walls of the clinic, by questioning her place in the city. She will follow patients in five towns in Hauts-de-Seine.
Godmothers : Magdalena Herrera, artistic director and Christine Leblond, client partner from Hello Paris.
Safia Delta whose project The Replica focuses on immigration and the tensions that result from it, the result of complex integration.
Godmothers : Selma Bella Zarhloul, gallery owner, and Feriel Simon, art buyer for the TBWA group.
Hélène Jayet whose project Colored only – Chin up ! proposes to create therapeutic images around black hairstyle and to question its relationship to colonial history, memory and black identity.
Godmothers : Emmanuelle Halkin, independent exhibition curator and editor, and Pascale Obolo, independent exhibition curator, director of the African Art Book Fair, editor-in-chief of the AFRIKADAA magazine.
Lydia Saidi whose project The other girls of raï focuses on these female singers, who suffer much more than their male counterparts from the sulphurous reputation associated with this musical genre, and who, to conceal their identity, affix portraits of Western models gleaned from magazines to their record covers. .
Godmothers : Elisabeth Hering, account manager at Picto, and Ioana Mello, independent curator.
A complementary system: the winners
For this 3e edition, the Mentoring system expands to other support for six finalists of the program.
Peggy Herbeau (pit sawyers), Chia Huang (The Shore), Nathyfa Michel (Make Péyi), Marie Moroni (Calcinaïa), Laure Sée (Orphans) et Fernanda Tafner (Elide, tell me your dreams) will thus benefit from a reading of their portfolios by members of the Filles de la Photo, from practical and strategic advice sessions during events organized by the association, from a legal training session organized with the partner ADAGP and, finally, visibility on the Filles de la Photo Instagram account.
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