Femmes Algériennes 1960

[Al-khiyal]

In 1960, Marc Garanger, who had previously worked as a photographer, was a serving soldier in the French army of occupation. As a part of its unsuccessful effort to block the Algerian push for independence, the French government introduced identity cards as a security measure - all Algerians had to carry an ID card. Garanger was asked to take photographs of Algerian women and the portraits he produced are unlike most portraits. The women did not wish to be photographed. They were forced to pose before a photographer who was a serving French soldier and who was accompanied by other French troops. Apart from the coercive circumstances in which the photographs were taken, there was another factor. Many of the women had been veiled throughout their entire adult lives but to comply with French orders they had to unveil.

Confronted by this assault on their cultural and religious sensitivities, the stress, the fear, the humiliation and the anger produced in Garanger's unwilling subjects can be read clearly on many of the faces of the women he photographed - as can flashes of defiance.

Years later Garanger produced a book containing many of the 2,000 pictures of Algerian women he took during his period of military service and several of the portraits featured in exhibitions he staged in a number of countries. Given the circumstances in which the pictures were obtained, it has been noted that his photographs "often led to angry reactions from viewers and critics at exhibitions".

Links to some of the images were posted here, on an older thread. The pictures below are a record of the beauty and the courage of Algerian women during Algeria's war of independence.

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[Bent_Bladi]

wow.... i don't know what i'd do if i were in there place *shudder*. Allah yistor.

i love the death glares they're giving the camera....