Women Photographers within Portuguese Colonial Africa
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 10:20 AM
Description
Dr. Inês Vieira Gomes, PhD, Collaborating Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History, NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lisbon, Portugal
Women Photographers within Portuguese Colonial Africa
I will focus on the production of some women photographers during colonial / liberation wars in the former Portuguese African colonies: Angola (1961); Guinea-Bissau (1963) and Mozambique (1964). The thirteen-year war (1961-1974) became the last and longest colonial war waged by a European country and one of the main reasons of the Carnation Revolution. The revolution in Portugal, which became known military coup on 25 April of 1974, was led by a group of military officers who fought in Africa and opposed the dictatorship Estado Novo [New State regime] putting an end to the authoritarian regime that lasted forty-eight years.
The liberation movements attracted the interest of many intellectuals and journalists, namely women. I will select 3 case studies:
- The Italian Bruna Polimeni (1934) was in Guinea-Bissau between 1965 and 1973, and was the “official” photographer of Amílcar Cabral being the only Italian photographer to attend the unilateral independence proclamation of Guinea Bissau on September 24, 1973;
- The Italian photographer Augusta Conchiglia (1948) with her partner Stefano de Stefani (1929) from the Italian National Public Television (RAI) went to Angola in 1968 to report the national liberation in Angola.
- And the American journalist Ingeborg Lippmann (1927-1988) was in Angola and Mozambique from 1974 to 1976. The interest in Angola and Mozambique in a crucial moment of their independences led Lippmann to these territories to record the social and political changes. In Mozambique she focused on Frelimo guerrillas, women that played a central role in the liberation struggle and were the symbol of the ideals of women emancipation.
These case studies were selected to illustrate a genealogy of women photographers within Portuguese colonial Africa who used photography to denounce violence and the political and social situation within the colonized territories.
Inês Vieira Gomes is a Collaborating Researcher at Institute of Contemporary History (IHC) of NOVA FCSH and holds a PhD in History from the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL, 2022) where she defended a thesis focused on photography in Portuguese Colonial Africa between 1875 and 1940. She has been awarded with a dissertation fellowship at Harry Ransom Center (University of Austin, 2018), a fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution in the National Museum of African Art (Washington DC, 2015), and worked as a research fellow at ICS-UL (Lisbon, 2012-2013). She obtained an MFA (FCSH-UNL, 2011) and a BA (FLUL, 2007) in Art History. Among other articles, she is the author of “Women photographers in Angola and Mozambique (1909-1950): A history of an absence” (in Darren Newbury, Lorena Rizzo, and Kylie Thomas (eds.), Women and Photography in Africa, London: Routledge, 2020) and “Images from Portuguese late colonialism by the lens of women photographers” (Fotocinema, 2025).
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Gomes, Inês Vieira, "Women Photographers within Portuguese Colonial Africa" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 30.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/30
Women Photographers within Portuguese Colonial Africa
Dr. Inês Vieira Gomes, PhD, Collaborating Researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History, NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Lisbon, Portugal
Women Photographers within Portuguese Colonial Africa
I will focus on the production of some women photographers during colonial / liberation wars in the former Portuguese African colonies: Angola (1961); Guinea-Bissau (1963) and Mozambique (1964). The thirteen-year war (1961-1974) became the last and longest colonial war waged by a European country and one of the main reasons of the Carnation Revolution. The revolution in Portugal, which became known military coup on 25 April of 1974, was led by a group of military officers who fought in Africa and opposed the dictatorship Estado Novo [New State regime] putting an end to the authoritarian regime that lasted forty-eight years.
The liberation movements attracted the interest of many intellectuals and journalists, namely women. I will select 3 case studies:
- The Italian Bruna Polimeni (1934) was in Guinea-Bissau between 1965 and 1973, and was the “official” photographer of Amílcar Cabral being the only Italian photographer to attend the unilateral independence proclamation of Guinea Bissau on September 24, 1973;
- The Italian photographer Augusta Conchiglia (1948) with her partner Stefano de Stefani (1929) from the Italian National Public Television (RAI) went to Angola in 1968 to report the national liberation in Angola.
- And the American journalist Ingeborg Lippmann (1927-1988) was in Angola and Mozambique from 1974 to 1976. The interest in Angola and Mozambique in a crucial moment of their independences led Lippmann to these territories to record the social and political changes. In Mozambique she focused on Frelimo guerrillas, women that played a central role in the liberation struggle and were the symbol of the ideals of women emancipation.
These case studies were selected to illustrate a genealogy of women photographers within Portuguese colonial Africa who used photography to denounce violence and the political and social situation within the colonized territories.
Inês Vieira Gomes is a Collaborating Researcher at Institute of Contemporary History (IHC) of NOVA FCSH and holds a PhD in History from the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-UL, 2022) where she defended a thesis focused on photography in Portuguese Colonial Africa between 1875 and 1940. She has been awarded with a dissertation fellowship at Harry Ransom Center (University of Austin, 2018), a fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution in the National Museum of African Art (Washington DC, 2015), and worked as a research fellow at ICS-UL (Lisbon, 2012-2013). She obtained an MFA (FCSH-UNL, 2011) and a BA (FLUL, 2007) in Art History. Among other articles, she is the author of “Women photographers in Angola and Mozambique (1909-1950): A history of an absence” (in Darren Newbury, Lorena Rizzo, and Kylie Thomas (eds.), Women and Photography in Africa, London: Routledge, 2020) and “Images from Portuguese late colonialism by the lens of women photographers” (Fotocinema, 2025).
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