Gerbase, Carlos
The woman on the front pages of the French magazine Photo (1967-1970): From object to subject
- 2018.
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This essay discusses how women, especially models, were credited on the covers of the French photography magazine Photo between 1967 (when the publication was launched) and 1990 (when the phenomenon of top-models was already established). The hypothesis is that, over this period, the models went from a condition of simple objects, “things” in front of the camera, without the right to display their name, to subjects participating in the photographic act. After 1990, this process of subjectivity intensified until it became virtually mandatory to place the names of the models on magazine covers, sharing the space with the names of the photographers. By drawing on a small body of literature on the feminist movement in the late 1960s, this article also speculates on the possibility that this movement contributed to a positive repositioning of models in the editorial strategies of Photo in relation to the front covers, giving them more dignified treatment, even though the magazine continued to work with women’s bodies and faces from an erotic and “voyeuristic” perspective, a phenomenon that still dominated (and continues to dominate) the publishing market. Also, a quantitative analysis of the credits of the models on the covers points to a sudden change in editorial strategies, responding to a trend within the fashion world and not to a social demand, as claimed by feminist movements.