Clara Bouveresse

Clara Bouveresse is a lecturer in English studies at the Université d’Évry/Paris Saclay. She holds a doctorate in art history from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and is the author of the book History of Magnum. The art of being a photographer (Flammarion). In 2017, she was associate curator of Magnum Manifesto, the exhibition organized for the cooperative’s 70th anniversary by Clément Chéroux at the International Center of Photography in New York. In 2019, she curated the exhibition Unretouched Women. Eve Arnold, Abigail Heyman, Susan Meiselas presented at the Rencontres de la Photographie festival in Arles, with a catalog published by Actes Sud. With Isabella Seniuta and Guillaume Blanc, she curated the 2020-2021 exhibition Gilles Caron. An imperfect world, with a catalog published by Le Point du Jour. In the Photo Poche collection, she is the author of three volumes devoted to women photographers (Actes Sud, Thames&Hudson, Contrasto, 2020) and of Photographies au saut du lit (to be published in 2023).

 

“From New York to Rome. Feminism and photography in the work of Stephanie Oursler and Suzanne Santoro.” This project focuses on two American artists who settled in Rome in the 1970s. Both participated in the creation of the Beato Angelico feminist cooperative, and used photography, books and exhibitions to question sexist violence and representations of women. Suzanne Santoro is best known for Towards New Expression (1974), a book revealing the presence of female sexual forms in classical statuary. In 1976, Stephanie Oursler published Un Album di violenza, a photographic calendar retracing a year of violence against women, based on press clippings. Their journey sheds new light on the exchanges between feminist and artistic movements on both sides of the Atlantic. It is particularly relevant in recent times, when a new generation is taking up these issues. This research proposes to build a bridge between the narratives of feminism in the 1970s and those being played out today.