Photography, press and feminism: pictures to document Spanish feminist activism (1977-2024)

Abstract

Press photography has important documentary value. It is a valuable means of representation for communication and journalism, but also for the configuration of memory about the past. In the processes of construction of memory discourses generated through photography, it is important to include invisible memories, as is the case of women. Through the study of photographs on two key dates for feminism, March 8 (International Women's Day) and November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Gender Violence) published in the newspaper El País since 1977 to 2024, the aim is to reconstruct the visual memory of Spanish feminist activism, emphasizing the iconographic and symbolic repertoire present in the photographs and that constitute the collective identity of both these dates and Spanish feminism. Putting together the different press photographs about these events over 47 years makes it possible to make visible the experiences of women and feminist activism, far from the hegemonic memories constructed from history and the media, where women either have not state, or have been underrepresented.