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Femen Activist Inna Shevchenko portrait by Guillaume Herbaut receives award at World Press Photo July 2, 2012

Posted by bohdan.warchomij in : Femen, Guillaime Herbaut, Institute for Artist Management, World Press Awards , trackback

I have been following the activism of Femen in Ukraine on the internet with some interest and Guillaume Herbaut’s work for the Institute for Artist Management in Ukraine for some time.  The two subjects coincided at the last World Press Awards when a photo of Inna Shevchenko , one of Femen’s activists received a World Press  award that will be controversial because of the nudity. Inna has a wreathe of flowers tattooed on her body. Her salute in the photo is a militant act and as Herbaut explains to the British Journal of Photography it is an act that has defined Femen and their role in Ukrainian political life. Unmistakeably their protest is a political one. It has given them media power and credibility and impetus in their battle against sexism and political opportunism in Ukraine and Russia. The activists have been arrested many times.

“Guillaume Herbaut‘s work, called The New Amazons, has followed the Femen protest group. “Their goal is to fight sexual tourism and to educate women to be more assertive and powerful. They use their bodies as a weapon,” writes Herbaut on his site, recording the words of one of his subject: “At the beginning, we were so naive and we manifested with balloons shouting some slogans, but nobody listened us. But one day, we don’t know why, one of us, Kseniya Chatchko, undressed, and we saw that the people, the press started to see us and to listen to us.”

Speaking to BJP, Herbaut said: “I think what’s interesting is the fact that the naked body has become a militant act. We’re seeing a lot more political movements that use nakedness to expose their opinions.”

Herbaut’s image could, however, prove controversial for World Press Photo, Daphné Anglès, the award’s secretary, told BJP. “There are some countries where the exhibition won’t be able to go because of that specific image,” she says. Herbaut half expected this to happen. “I was very surprised when my agency told me that certain markets couldn’t publish these photos because the women depicted were naked. The US is one of these markets. I’m astonished, maybe because I’m French. For us, there are no issues with these kind of images. It’s very natural. There’s nothing shocking. I think it will be interesting to see how different countries react to that image.”"

Read more in the British Journal of Photography and on the Institute of Artist Management website.

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