Strike a Pose: italian women artists' self-representation in photographic portraits in the 1960s and 1970s

Portraits and self-portraits have always allowed subjects to present their personal, social and professional identity, though specific poses, settings and the inclusion of objects transformed into attributes. This chapter investigates what happens when women artists are subjects of photographic portraits. Focusing on the Italian context of the sixties and seventies, I examine images that document the identity of diverse artists, such as Carla Accardi and Giosetta Fioroni. I offer a close analysis of the personal and professional messages traced in photographical portraits for a better understanding of what women artists wanted to communicate about themselves and their labor, interpreting public portraits as instruments for the establishment and communication of professional authority.