the female gaze

We sat down with Paris-based photographer, feminist and activist, Andrea Bresciani to chat about her work and what drives her very moving and relatable imagery.

Published On: 21/04/2022

toitoitoiluv: can you tell us, in your words, what you do as an artist?

Andrea: I started photography in a professional way five years ago. Since then I have tried many different types of photography before and then I found what I was most passionate about. I've always loved documentaries (movies and photography, that's why i've studied journalism probably) and in recent years I've discovered that I'm a feminist. With the #metoo hashtag I learned so much about feminisms and inequalities that in that it was impossible to go back. And the more I read and searched about it, the more I saw some of the privileges I enjoy and I felt like I wanted to talk about them or at least make sure that as many people as possible could enjoy them as it should be. Feminism for me became a matter of course and this with contemporary struggles: the condition of women in society, the type of women/non binary or physiques or ages represented in photography, the stereotypes too. So I try to put all this in my work and my photographic vision. 

In general I like to work a lot around feminist issues and around the question of gender or representation.Through my photography I'm trying to change the stereotypes of beauty standards to have a greater representation of any gender, ethnicity or age. For me everything is beauty and everything is worth looking at. I love to work on documentary subjects in order to be as close as possible to my photographic subjects, to erase the distance that the camera puts between the photographer and the photographed. That's why I also take a lot of interviews, because for me listening is the centre of all my work.

toitoitoiluv: when did you start? What got you interested in this in the first place?

Andrea: I've started randomly, I never studied photography. I'm a completely self-taught person in this. I've always had a love for taking pictures, but it was really with a small camera and that was because I was very afraid to forget. Little by little I discovered that I was very passionate about it and at university I took a photography workshop and there I discovered that it was really something that made me vibrate, I felt like I had a fire burning in me! And since then I've made it my job. At first it was hard to combine my passion and my clients, but more and more I'm learning. And also clients and society are changing. For exemple last year I co-founded Allégorie Studio, a creative studio, with my friend Charlyne Urbaniak and since then more and more clients ask us to do our style for their brands, such as diversity in castings or no retouch in photography.

Andrea Bresciani. Image from series: ‘DEFINE’ with Allégorie Studio * Argot Studio

toitoitoiluv: what method/practice/technique are you using that you are most proud of?

Andrea: I've recently started to do film photography, I bought a medium format camera last week and it's a whole new stage of technical learning ahead of me! For the moment I have a lot of waste but I'm not worried about it because in photography without waste you are not learning. 

toitoitoiluv: do you have anything you would like to share with the world about what you do and why you do it?

Andrea: For me it's very important to listen to the people. I think that listening to someone is one of the biggest and strongest actions. It means giving attention, not leaving someone alone and also sharing in the happiness and suffering of someone else's existence. I have always said to myself that we don't have enough time in life to do or live everything and that the best solution is to listen to the experiences of others or to read books. And lately I have also learned that listening is not only for oneself but can really have an impact on social change which I hope we will all work towards. That's why I take photos, record interviews or videos, because it's my way to listen and show to others what people have to say. 

toitoitoiluv: what is it about what you do that has the biggest positive impact?

socially/environmentally/politically/artistically.  What is that impact?

Andrea: I am often told that through my projects I have given a voice to those who did not have one. Whether it's people who have been sexually abused or assaulted or people with endometriosis or older people. Many times I've been told after a project "I've never said this to anyone before, but I trust you, so I'm not afraid of saying it". I am very lucky to have all this trust from the people I work with. I can't thank them enough. 

And I'm also lucky that working on difficult subjects doesn't affect me too much in my psyche, so I use this strength to help others by giving them a voice. Or at least I try to! 

Andrea Bresciani. Image from series: ‘Versus’ with Allégorie Studio

toitoitoiluv: where can people find you?

Andrea: On instagram @andrea.brscn or on my website andreabresciani.com and here for Allégorie Studio @allegorie.studio

Andrea Bresciani. Image from series: ‘DEFINE’ with Allégorie Studio * Argot Studio

For more on andreas current projects, take a peek below

Coincé.e.s

https://andreabresciani.com/Coince-e-s

Is a video and photo documentary project about the testimonies of models who have been sexually abused by photographers during photo shoots.

It's a very intense and hard project, the video is here.

To whom does the breast belong? A History of the breast

Is about the "owners" of the female breast, a "chronological journey" from prehistory and continues to the present day. I had this idea while reading the book A history of the breast by Marylin Yalom. In her book she shows us that not only the breast never belonged to women (or to ourselves), but throughout the history of mankind, it has always belonged to many owners. The starting point of her research is precisely this question: "to whom does the breast belong? To the child who is breastfed? To the man who looks at it excitedly? To advertisements? To fashion? Maybe to the woman?

https://andreabresciani.com/l-histoire-du-sein

Toujours là.

With Allégorie Studio we have done a campaign for the association Info-Endometriose which informs about this very common but still too unknown disease (endometriosis). For this campaign we had posters in all France and in Paris, and we also produced and directed a television spot.

https://andreabresciani.com/TOUJOURS-LA

DEFINE

Define is another project we made with Allégorie and it's totally about trying to answer those questions : What is Beauty ? What is normality ? Curves, skin, color, texture, it’s all about diversity. How can we define it ?

For this shooting we wanted to show others bodies or ages that usually are not represented in media or magazines.

https://andreabresciani.com/DEFINE-Allegorie-Studio-Argot-Studio

VERSUS

Versus is about questions about interior conflicts, the ego and the superego in everyday life.

https://andreabresciani.com/Versus

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do you have a creative project you’re working that you’d like to share with the world?.

we’d luv to hear from you - drop us a line at workwithus@toitoitoiluv.com

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