Their lenses trained on Brussels, prize-winning female photographers
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The Géopolis Centre, dedicated to photojournalism, has been endeavouring to decipher contemporary international affairs for the general public since its opening in 2017. To honour the career of the first female photographer to join the Belgian press corps, Germaine Van Parys, the eponymous prize has recently unveiled its laureates. The award wished to pursue the engagement of the woman image taker by celebrating the talent of the women at the centre of this discipline.
As the creatives devoted to this art form are only too aware, woman photographers number even fewer than a quarter of the members of the world’s largest photography agencies. ‘This prize not only crystallises a symbolic wish to render visible the photographic and artistic creative work of women, it is also political,’ maintains Ulrich Huygevelde. The Géopolis coordinator continues: ‘we had been planning to organise a Photo prize for several years, except that on the scale of a small association, beyond the exhibitions and the pedagogical activities we manage, our budget didn’t allow us the opportunity. When Delphine Houba [Editor’s note, the Alderwoman of Culture for the City of Brussels] contacted us in 2023, we followed her lead, her idea of dedicating a prize to the work of women photographers. Because even though it’s changing somewhat, the image of the photojournalist remains tarnished by that of a male photographer on the frontline of a war.’
Women’s gazes set on Brussels
Remedying the lack of the representation of the way women gaze at the world and also for the lack of diversity in the kinds of images which photojournalismcovers for the average person. If Germaine Van Parys considered photography as the development of fragments of thought, it is the gazes of two women which the prize bearing her name has just rewarded. Amongst the hundred or so entries received in the two categories – Grand Prix and Student Prize – the organisers narrowed the parameters of the competition down to a self-evident theme: gazes fixed on Brussels. ‘We received very interesting proposals, in particular from student photographers,’ notes Ulrich Huygevelde. ‘Several were to a great extent invested in drug dealing, old age, or the day-to-day life of Brussels. With a high use of black and white.’
First female photographer to join the Belgian press corps
Born in Saint-Gilles in 1893, Germaine Van Parys is portrayed as an independent, inquisitive and engaged figure. After studying at the Brussels Arts & Crafts School, the young woman married the press photographer Félix Van Parys and before long was herself experimenting with photography. It was a reportage on the jubilant scenes which accompanied the return of King Albert the First to Brussels in 1918 which opened the doors of Le Soir daily newspaper for her. Germaine Van Parys thus became the first woman in Belgium to obtain photojournalist status and pursued working relationships with other major media outlets.
During the Second World War, Germaine categorically refused to work for the Germans. She aligned herself with the resistance by contributing to the production of false identity documents, and even became a war correspondent for the Allied forces in 1945. In 1956, she added an additional post to her portfolio and became one of the few businesswomen of her era, in founding the Van Parys press agency, which remained active until the 1980s. Germaine and her niece, Odette Dereze, thus continued to document the news, but the Saint-Gilloise native also specialised in a completely other register. She owes her ’Queen of the Portrait’s title to her numerous photographs of the Belgian royal family, Winston Churchill, Joséphine Baker, Albert Einstein and others. Mirroring the theme of this first edition of the Germaine Van Parys Prize, her photos of a bygone Brussels, whether they are taken in the Marolles or anonymous locations, remain universal.
For the award winners, neither pride nor prejudice
Strange to relate, the two laureates have quite similar backgrounds and participations, plus an imposter syndrome in common. In the Grand Prix category, Marie Sordat stood out with a series which retraces her meanders across the streets of Brussels. ‘I wandered all around the city, from Auderghem to Anderlecht, from the centre to its outskirts, in the darkness of the metro and in broad daylight, searching for what, in my eyes, deeply represents my city,’ explains the photographer, a teacher at the INSAS and a freelance exhibition curator. ‘Even if I hesitated for a long time before entering since, deep down, I don’t at all feel I am a photojournalist.’
Whilst the Centre wished above all to steer clear of artworks, the competition was very open to all those engaged in documentary photography. A genre which requires not a status but a poised observation of the world. Think of Vivian Maier or Joel Meyerowitz. These emblematic figures of street photography have never proclaimed themselves photojournalists, but, far from being gratuitous, their images establish links between the everyday and society.
In the Student Category, another crisscrossing of Brussels has been pinned up. In her ‘Passages’ series, Cécili Matureli has explored the life of the entrance halls of the Brussels apartment blocks which for her symbolise the capital. And the student in her third year of filmmaking studies at the INSAS was, moreover, able to count on the support of her former photography teacher. ‘Marie Sordat encouraged me to enter the competition because, a little like her, I didn’t feel completely legitimate. Due to my young age, due to my status as a student in cinema, and my position as a woman. I have been taking photos since I was very little, but I had never worked on big projects such as for the competition. The theme interested me a lot because I think that the largest part of my photography work focuses on my adopted city.’
Originally from Soignies, a small town in Hainaut, Cécili overcame her fear of the unknown by going towards it. ‘With my camera, I literally set off into Brussels to photograph strangers. For me, Brussels is both disparate, you can walk from one neighbourhood to another and have the impression that you are crossing two totally different worlds, but it is also a surreal city. In my photo series, I went into the entrance halls of the typical buildings from the past, such as the iconic Tour Brusilia in Schaerbeek. I felt the strong link between these locations and the people who live in them today. People passing through.’
Working with flash photography and with a torch in broad daylight, the budding photographer’s first experimentation has paid off, with this surrealistic aspect giving her series a troubling, almost spectral appearance. ‘It is obvious that, in my work, I wanted to bring out my angst for the people in Brussels. When I was taking my pictures, I realised in talking with these Brussels inhabitants that I wasn’t the only one to have noticed a blatant lack of human contact or people suffering from loneliness. It’s perhaps heightened because I come from a rural background where life is much more community-based than in the city. But it’s ridiculous to feel lonely in massive apartment blocks inhabited by hundreds of individuals.’
Géopolis obviously hopes that this first chapter of the Germaine Van Parys Prize will open many others. ‘Could we imagine sending the call for entries beyond our borders and reaching out to women photographers internationally?’ considers the coordinator of the photojournalism centre. ‘The theme of this year’s prize ruled out making this overture, but we have already thought about theming the next calls for entries on feminist struggles across the world.’ As for the series of photographs by the two award winners, they will be exhibited at the Géopolis centre from May 30 to June 30, 2024, alongside a retrospective of the work of Germaine Van Parys.
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