“A woman must have money and a room to herself if she wants to write fiction”, wrote Virginia Woolf in A Room of One's Own. As with literature, this can be applied to all forms of artistic expression, including photography. Like in all fields, women have had to fight to get behind the lens, to be able to decide how they are seen, portrayed and narrated. The story we want to tell is that of women's need to tell their stories, to recover a creative space in which they are not objects but subjects, not muses but creators.
This exhibition, created by women, brings together female photographers who do not simply capture images, but rewrite the visual language through which femininity is perceived. Their work disrupts cultural paradigms that have historically marginalised female perspectives, offering instead an alternative, self-determined, intimate and non-apologetic perspective.
What do we still want to challenge in the 21st century? John Berger encapsulated it in a few words “Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at." Here, women do not merely appear, but speak, affirm, deconstruct. Their lenses interrogate the patriarchal narratives that have shaped art history and media representation, claiming authority over how their bodies, identities and experiences are portrayed. Through their work, photography ceases to be a vehicle for objectification and becomes a tool for emancipation.
Using the voices and arts of 10 female artists, and rooted in second-wave feminism, we created A Room of Her Own, an exhibition that is meant to be a tribute and a call to action. These women artists capture the moment - of resistance, of transformation, of self-definition. The images they create invite us to reconsider what it means to see and be seen, to witness and be witnessed. In this space, femininity is not a singular and monolithic construct, but rather a fluid and multifaceted experience. The works presented explore the interplay between identity, power and the body, embracing both the intimate and the collective, the personal and the political.
By Matilde Dani
