FEMMES ALGERIENNES 1960 (1960)
The photographs which Marc Garanger took of Algerian women in 1960 have always been controversial. Garanger, at that time a military conscript stationed in Algeria, made them under orders of the French government, which had determined that all Algerians had to carry an ID card. The making of the identity photographs was accompanied with the requisite stress, since many woman had spent their whole adult life veiled. The result was a series of intimate photographs of faces from which the women’s discontent and anger can clearly be read. Although Garanger expressly attempted to record the beauty of Algerian women, his photographs led to angry reactions from viewers and critics at exhibitions.
