Letter from the Editors: Italian Feminist Photography

This issue of the Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture (JAPPC) is the result of a collaboration with an Italian research group working on a research project entitled “Italian Feminist Photography” (IFP), funded by the Italian Ministry for University and Research after winning a national funding call. The IFP project aims at reconstructing the contribution of feminism to Italian photographic production from the origins of the medium to 1980, analyzing the contribution of women to the history of Italian photography within the framework of a progressive spread of demands for feminist emancipation and recognition of identity, according to the most recent perspectives offered by gender and feminist studies. Our investigation and reflection extend to practices which, while outside any militant positions, helped to underline a specific policy of construction of the female imagination and different self-assertion strategies. Aiming to study and enhance the presence and role of women photographers in Italy, and highlight the effective circulation of their work, our research project investigates different channels through which both explicit and militant, as well as implicit and/or anticipatory, feminism can be framed in history. Our special issue on the topic Italian Feminist Photography offers to readers of JAPPC a powerful collection of original articles dealing with a wide range of experiences and practices that represent the universe of Italian photography from a feminist perspective.