women photographers in modernity

with Lucia Lima

Dates: July 16, 23, 30, August 06 and 13, 2025
Wednesdays
Hour: 19h to 21h
Duration: 05 meetings
Audience: general interested parties
Investment: R $ 400,00

Online course
Live, via video conferencing platform
Recorded classes available for a limited time only
Course includes certificate at the end

Since the emergence of the first photographic techniques, women have played a fundamental creative role in consolidating photography as one of the main hallmarks of the visual culture of our time. However, why is it that when we mention the main names in the History of Photography or when we discuss the most recurring themes in modern photographic production, women rarely occupy a prominent place?

Based on an overview of women's relationship with photography in the West — especially in the first half of the 20th century — the course proposes a historical analysis of the experiences of women who actively participated in the development of photography, both as a professional field and as an artistic language. The course will cover the careers and works of photographers such as Lee Miller, Berenice Abbott, Lisette Model, Hildegard Rosenthal, Gerda Taro, Grete Stern, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Marianne Brandt, Kati Horna, Dora Maar, Ilse Bing, Annemarie Heinrich, Francesca Woodman, Claude Cahun, among others, with the aim of discussing issues related to the social marker of gender.

Her productions provoke reflections on themes such as the conditions of production for female artists, the relationship between women and cities, the organization of the gaze in the act of photography, the interaction with the people photographed, female representation in photography and the use of one's own image as a form of artistic experimentation, among others.

The aim of the course is to broaden participants' references regarding the history of photography, offering examples and trajectories that diversify the understanding of photographic practice in the 20th century. In addition, it seeks to highlight the impact of the system of gender differentiation on artistic production in our society.

Agenda

Lesson 01 – You see them, now you don’t see them anymore

• Photography & Gender: epistemological disputes
• Presences and absences in the early years of the History of Photography
• A History of Women Photographers / Gender Studies in Photography: Defining a Field of Research

Class 02 – Photography at the Crossroads

• The craft of photography: production conditions for women
• Is Photography Art? From Pictorialism to Modern Narrative
• Female participation in the development of the modern language of photography

Class 03 – Modern Women

• “The New Woman” and the Visual Culture of Modernity
• Women photographers in the European avant-garde
• Immigrant Photographers in America
• Partnerships and deletions

Class 04 – Women with their cameras

• Women in the modern city
• Body, space and gaze relations in photography produced by women
• Self-portrait and self-creation

Class 05 – Female Artists / Women Artists

• Narratives about women photographers: discussing pioneering and genius
• Women artists and photography: from archive to performance
• Paths to a feminist critique

Lúcia Lima

Lúcia Lima is a teacher, researcher and photographer. She holds a Master's degree in Arts from the Interunit Program in Aesthetics and Art History (PGEHA) at the University of São Paulo (USP), where she also graduated in Literature. She has a degree in Photography and is particularly interested in the relationship between art and gender, investigating the role of women in the History of Photography from a critical feminist perspective.

She works as an art teacher in a private elementary school and teaches free courses on photography and art history. In her master's research — Hildegard Rosenthal and the experiences of modernity for women photographers in Brazil in the 1940s —, developed with a CAPES scholarship and under the guidance of Professor Helouise Costa, she investigated the production of the German-born photographer in light of the specificities of women's experiences in photography, especially in the context of the development of modern language in Brazil.

She is a member of the CNPq research group Gender, Art, Artifacts and Images (GAAI), which promotes events and meetings on women in the field of arts. Her studies on women in modern photography have been presented at events such as the Festival de Arte Analógica (Unibes Cultural, 2024) and at international conferences, such as the XI Simposio Otras Historias de la Fotografía (Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá – Colombia, 2023).

In 2023, she published with Helouise Costa the chapter In search of the spirit of the modern city: women photographers on the move between the wars, in the catalogue of the exhibition MODERNAS! São Paulo seen by them, organized by the Jewish Museum of São Paulo.

MAM friend has 20% discount. Be part!
Students, teachers and retirees have a 10% discount
Doubts:
cursos@mam.org.br
WhatsApp: 11 99774 3987

By participating in this activity/event, you authorize, free of charge and definitively, MAM – Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, to use your image, voice, biographical data and characteristic signs, captured in video, audio, photography and prints, for the purposes of recording, disseminating and promoting the Museum's activities, in any means, vehicles, supports, media, methods and technologies, tangible or intangible. If you do not want your image to be disclosed, please inform MAM (cursos@mam.org.br)

credits: Pedestrians in Patriarca Square, 1940. Hildegard Rosenthal. Source IMS