Fembook – A visual glossary for a post-patriarchal society
Collective photobook workshop
The second Photobook Workshop will focus on the production of a collective book that explores the subject of patriarchy.
As a women’s collective active in Hungary, we would like to take part in the struggle against patriarchy with this project, and we invite the participants of the photobook workshop to join this effort. We have chosen this subject because, in our experience, patriarchy as a system of power hinders us from being solidary and supportive in relation to each other and nature.
This is not a new objective, but something that all generations of feminist movements have fought for; the questioning of the male-centred worldview has left behind the framework wherein the focus was mainly on subordination and fairness in male-female relationships, and is carried out with a consideration of the disadvantages that derive from social class and minority status as well.
We set as the goal of the workshop series to create a joint Fembook, a collection of images and concepts, based on our own photographs. The Fembook departs from concepts with positive or negative connotations that we may know but do not consider in sufficient depth in our daily lives. Yet getting to know these terms and critically analysing them is necessary to be able to speak a common language and to counter the injustice of patriarchy.
The starting concepts are care, silence (or being silenced), patriarchy, masculinity vs. femininity, queer, sensitivity, love, equality, work, dominance, harmony, solidarity, independence, diversity and community. As we work, participants may suggest new concepts to be added to or removed from this list.
During the ten workshops, we will discuss short texts to familiarise ourselves with the concepts and then recreate them visually. Finally from the compiled photographs we will create the artist’s book together.
We consider it important that not only women feel encouraged to participate because men can also be negatively impacted by patriarchy as a power structure, and because we are convinced that it is only by joining forces we can aim a new world view that displaces patriarchal society.
Details:
As soon as photography became a more widely accessible genre from the middle of the 19th century on, there were women who practised the art and made photobooks—while remaining invisible for the public eye, as so often in other fields of culture and society. The first photo-based book is credited to Henry Fox Talbot, whose 1844 The Pencil of Nature is an important chapter in the history of photobooks. Even though Anna Atkins had published her The British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions a year earlier, photographic history remembers Talbot as the first pioneer of photography-based books— a glaring example of patriarchy (in this case: more support and visibility for male artists) shaping our view of art and society.
Later, participatory fanzines emerged in opposition to canonised culture and mainstream media. Collective publishing not only facilitates acquiring knowledge from different fields, but also makes it possible to experience and shape contemporary art and culture. This is our motivation for the creation of a collective “Fembook” at this workshop. [1]
The first sessions of the workshop focus on the theoretical aspects of the subject, though every time we will also look at the practicalities of creating images and compiling a photobook. Each participant will choose a concept, find a partner to work with, and the pairs will explore their subject through the means of photography.
At one of the sessions, we will be joined by visual artists who use photography or photobooks in their investigations of feminine subjects. The aim of discussion with them is to inspire and motivate the participants in realising their projects.
In the final stage, we will make use of the completed photo projects to create the book together. The workshop will conclude with an exhibition and book launch in the Space of Opportunity.
Workshop leader: Zsófi Puszt
Contributor: Dóra Hegyi
[1] "Fembook" is from the term "Femzine", which is a common name for queer and feminist zines in the United States.
