Retratadas: Estudios de mujeres. Exploring Women's Agency in 19th-Century Spanish Photography Exhibitions

This exhibition explores the role of women in 19th-century Spanish photography, focusing on the photographic studio as a space for expression and experimentation. Through a selection of visiting cards and objects, it reinterprets the studio not just as a place for portraits, but as a site of female agency and self-representation.

Through a curated selection of 19th-century Spanish visiting cards and photography-related objects, 'Retratadas. Estudios de mujeres.' offers a reinterpretation of the photographic studio. The exhibition highlights these spaces not merely as elegant, bourgeois settings designed to reflect idealized feminine norms, but as crucial arenas where women actively engaged with the medium. They transformed the act of posing into a form of expression and, often, resistance, challenging the traditional narrative that relegated them to passive roles. The exhibition aims to uncover how women, both as subjects and active participants, influenced the technical, commercial, and artistic development of photography, thereby reshaping representations and feminine roles. The exhibition particularly focuses on the 'boudoir' or dressing room within photographic studios, a private space designated for women. More than just a decorative element, this 'room of one's own' served as a transition zone between the private and public spheres, where women could prepare, transform, and experiment with their image before the camera. Prestigious studios meticulously equipped these areas with cosmetics, attire, and adornments. The boudoir functioned as a symbolic territory of autonomy and feminine creativity, allowing 'Retratadas' to negotiate their image and actively participate in their own representation, thus subverting the male gaze and contributing to the evolving visual culture of the era.

Access is included with museum admission. Further practical information and a press dossier are available, including details on guided tours, workshops, and a conference.