Achievements
Achievements
Pauline MAKOVEITCHOUX
My artistic and activist background is a real passion that drives me to continue exploring new subjects and defending women's rights through art.
I believe in the power of photography to bring about social change and I strive to make women's voices heard through my committed artistic projects.
Self-portrait, beginning of a new cycle,
June 2022
Biography:
Born in 1986 in Vitry-sur-Seine, I grew up in a working-class environment in Ivry-sur-Seine, where I didn't have many choices to realize my dreams and artistic ambitions as a woman.
After obtaining a technological baccalaureate, I held various positions in the medical and catering sectors. I found in photography a real means of artistic and militant expression.
My activism
In 2015, I joined the feminist and activist movement FEMEN. The following year, I contributed to the creation and development of the feminist collective Insomnia, which aims to denounce sexist marketing first and foremost. At the same time, I also participated in the creation and growth of the Anti-Sexist Brigade.
On November 25, 2016, I organized and took part in Insomnia's action honoring victims of femicide. This initiative was particularly close to my heart because of a tragic double femicide that occurred within my own family.
In January 2017, I took my first photographs in the field to document the action of the Insomnia collective in favor of the right to abortion, in response to the poster campaigns led by the anti-abortion movement "En marche pour la vie". My photos were published for the first time in the press.
A few months later, exhausted by my activist activities and faced with police and judicial pressure, I decided to withdraw from the feminist collectives.
Self-portrait, confinement,
April 2020
My photography practice
I then devoted myself fully to photography and took specialized courses in studio photography and photojournalism in order to perfect my technique.
In my artistic approach, I seek to desexualize women's postures and bodies, thus giving birth to a new form of female portraits.
In 2018, I made a photo report entitled "Alma de Portugal", documenting the life and practices of traditional Portuguese fishermen in the Algarve region, threatened with extinction by the aggressive methods of industrial fishing.
In August 2019, I responded to Marguerite Stern's call to document the movement of collages against feminicides that she initiated. My work on collages was the subject of a documentation of
4 years and has been widely published in the press.
In September 2019, I created a photographic series entitled “Women are not afraid”.
This series puts women in the public space into perspective and aims to denounce the sexist and sexual assaults they suffer. A manifesto accompanying the series has been translated into nine languages.
Between 2019 and 2023 Women are not afraid was exhibited in several cities in France and Scotland.
In 2021, I directed the short film Sororamour, written by Marie-Elise Vidal and entirely directed by an all-female team. This feminist project tells the story of how women's commitment can transform the lives of other women.
And since September 2024, I have been working on a series called "La Terre des Femmes". This project, centered on peasant and agricultural women in Brittany, captures the relationship of these women with their land and their work.