PHOTOGRAPHER AT WAR

From its beginnings, war photography has been closely associated with a male narrative, focusing on battles, heroism and military rivalry. The traditional image of war emphasized strength, domination and brutality, presenting it as a field of masculine courage and great historical events.

On Wednesday, March 12, Aleksandra Szwedo, during the next lecture from the PHOTOSTORIES series, will talk about how female war photographers brought a unique perspective to this narrative, showing the war in a more intimate, human way. Thanks to sensitivity, empathy and the ability to capture subtle emotions, their works focus on the suffering of civilians, women, children and soldiers, showing the reality of war in a personal dimension. War becomes not only a space of destruction and fighting, but also a place of everyday tragedies, fears and hopes.

Photographers such as Lee Miller, Gerda Taro and Susan Meiselas, instead of emphasizing spectacular victories, show the ambiguity of the conflict – moments that remain outside the mainstream narrative, but which allow us to see the war in a completely new light. Their works, focusing on victims and non-obvious moments of everyday life, give the war a deeper, human dimension.

During the lecture, we will look at the history of war photography, discovering how women changed the faces of these dramatic narratives. We will discuss the fate of both legendary figures and lesser-known artists, such as Nino Djordjadze – the first Georgian war photographer, and French photojournalists Catherine Leroy and Françoise Demulder, who documented the Vietnam War.

The lecture will once again be led by Aleksandra Szwedo – art historian, curator and researcher of photography, specializing in the history of women in this field and alternative photographic narratives, author of the lecture series “One. Stories of women photographers” and “Photo Brut. Photography on the edge”.

Admission free!