[Updated on Sep 29] It seems almost tired, how long society has been championing the need to give female photographers the attention they deserve—and yet progress is never really significant. Hence the need for initiatives like the Women in Photography group exhibition by Objectifs, back for its third edition from Oct 13-Nov 19. This year, in a powerful hit back at the patriarchy, the exhibition spotlights eight international and local women photographers and their works exploring domesticity and family.
Their subjects range from domestic help in Bangladesh to complete strangers in North America, and deal with important issues that include an intersection of politics, gender, sexuality, cultural identity and oppression. Belgian photographer Bieke Depoorter’s long-term series I Am About to Call it a Day documents the homes and personalities of strangers who let her stay a night in their homes during her travels across the US. Freelance photographer Maika Elan from Vietnam sheds light on the domestic lives of same-sex couples living in Vietnam. In Close Distance, Jannatul Mawa features portraits of housewives and housemaids in Bangladesh co-existing uncomfortably in a single household. And homegirl Bernice Wong, an independent documentary photographer, highlights issues of urban poverty and social inequality in her documentation of a single mother who juggles seven children and a group of youths-at-risk.
The exhibition is part of a larger showcase on women in film and photography, which celebrates the important contributions women make to the arts, particularly in fields still dominated by men. Women in Photography runs from Oct 13-Nov 19 at Objectifs Chapel Gallery, and admission is free.
But if you’re a moving images type of person, there’s also a bunch of film screenings at the Women in Film showcase, which will be held on Oct 19-28 in conjunction with the Women in Photography exhibition. Following the same thread of the photography exhibition, Women in Film looks to give th ewomen in a predominantly male-dominated industry a platform to tell the world what they want to through film. This showcase will screen full-feature works by women filmmakers like Kiki Sugino, as well as six short-films from Europe, the U.S. and of course, Singapore.
More information here.
