Photography exhibition in Évora shows woman’s image

‘The Woman in the Photographic Archive Collections of Évora City Hall’ is the title of an exhibition, centered on the image of women in the last 150 years, which can be visited, starting on Thursday.

The exhibition, promoted by the City Council, as part of the commemorations of the International Women’s Day, officially marked on Friday, will be on display at the National Museum Frei Manuel do Cenáculo and at the Évora Public Library, the municipality said today.

The inauguration of the initiative, whose source is the large collection of the Photographic Archive of the municipality, is scheduled for 5:30 pm on Thursday, becoming patent until the 30th of this month.

According to the organization, the set of exposed photographs, which includes “original photographic proofs and digital reproductions of black and white negatives and original photographic proofs”, results from the research of the theme “in the different collections of the Municipal Archive”, which refers ” for the perception and representation of the image of women in the last 150 years. ”

“The selection of the images corresponded to a choice that took into account the different collections in the archive, trying to make it as comprehensive as possible”, and at the same time “to a chronological concern that allowed to capture the fictional images of the statute of the woman in the different historical periods and in the work of the different photographers “, explained the autarchy.

Through the works, which include studio portraits, reports or artistic photographs, “it was possible to elaborate a social, ethnological and chronological document of the evolution of the status of women and their social representation along a temporal arc from 1870 to at the beginning of the 21st century, “he said.

The exhibition shows the “looks” of Maria Eugénia Reya Campos, the “first female Portuguese photographer”, António Maria Serra, Ricardo Santos, José Pedro Braga Passport, who was “a photographer of the Royal House”, Ricardo Santos, Estevão de Oliveira Fernandes or Francisco Manuel Fialho.

Mário da Gama Freixo, Joaquim da Silva Nogueira (Photo Brazil), Eduardo Nogueira, David Freitas, António Passaporte, Marcolino Silva and Paulo Nuno Silva are the photographer’s authors of the other images that are part of the selection.

The camera pointed out that, through these photographs, “it was possible to reveal several testimonies of daily life, difficulties in the world of work and affirmation of women in a male world.”

“They appear to us, now unknown, now identified, exhibiting their privileges alongside others, resigned or indifferent, irreverent or pioneers of the proud affirmation of their gender identity,” said the chamber, which has the support of the Directorate Regional of Culture of the Alentejo and of the Public Library of Évora.

The exhibition will include the nineteenth-century bourgeois woman, the woman confined to the domestic space, the factory workers of the first industrial units in the region, the Alentejo and mountain peasants from the Algarve, the first service employees, the artists from the Lisbon and the Bohemian stages, the autarchy employees and anonymous women, “he summarized.

In addition to this event, the celebrations of International Women’s Day in Évora include “a vast program”, from Thursday until the 21st of this month, in an organization of the Chamber, the Local Government Workers’ Union (STAL) and the Democratic Movement of Women (MDGs).

A bicycle tour, a guided tour of the Cromeleque dos Almendres, theater and the Artistic Festival, with concerts and conversations, are the program activities.