VERÔNICA ALKMIM FRANÇA
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FEMALE IN FOCUS
AT HOME: Photo by Verônica Alkmim França – Female in Focus winner
An international photography award from British Journal of Photography and 1854, Female in Focus was established to champion the work of exceptional women photographers from across the globe and directly combat gender inequality in the photography industry. Globally, 70-80% of photography students are women, yet they account for only 13-15% of professional photographers, and that must change. This year’s call for submissions was centred around the theme of home.
This image was made on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, through a project that aims to highlight the essence and spontaneity of a simple, genuine person who doesn't have much contact with the city and technology and lives a more spontaneous life. This condition is the world, the universe, the home of these people, which in fact is also a social tradition. Here, this woman reminds Penelope that in Greek mythology, waiting for her husband, weaving during the day and during the night unraveled what she had woven.
"Penelope in Greek Mythology was the wife of Odysseus, the daughter of Icarius and Periboea. She waited for Odysseus more than twenty years: before, during and after the Trojan war and even though she was much courted, she never doubted that her husband would return to her.
Her father Icarius asked her to remarry and she, as she wanted to continue waiting for her husband, said she would marry when she finished weaving a quilt. So, during the day she weaved and during the night she unraveled."