‘FREE!’ The history of women in 50 photographs
The exhibition, conceived and curated by Renata Ferri at the Gallerie d’Italia in Italia, traces eighty years of women’s emancipation
Milan, 1970. A woman strides purposefully across Piazza Duomo. All around her are men in suits and ties and other passers-by, but it is she who catches the eye because of the way she occupies the public space. The photograph is by Gianni Berengo Gardin and serves as the iconic image for ‘LIBERE! 1946–2026. Women’s Achievements’, the exhibition conceived and curated by Renata Ferri at the Gallerie d’Italia in Milan and promoted by iO Donna. Fifty photographs trace eighty years of women’s emancipation through public and private life, work, family, feminism, professions, sport, the body and social models.
Seven million images
The core collection comes from Publifoto, one of the leading Italian photographic agencies of the 20th century, whose archive contains around 7 million images covering politics, industry, current affairs, social life and everyday life. Intesa Sanpaolo acquired it in 2015, subsequently investing in its restoration and cataloguing. ‘Intesa saved Publifoto,’ notes Ferri, emphasising the fragility and value of Italy’s major photographic archives. Drawing on this heritage, with some significant additions from other archives, the exhibition presents a narrative of social change through photographs which, originally intended for news coverage, are now regarded as historical documents and collector’s items.
But who was behind the lens? “Publifoto had eight female photographers on record,” explains Ferri. In the archive, where many photographs remain anonymous, 45 women’s names appear, mostly linked to images distributed by the agency. For decades, the curator notes, social photography and photojournalism remained predominantly male domains.
Rights and disparities
Photographs and words weave two parallel narratives. The visual journey begins in the Lodi area on 17 March 1946, with a group of women fresh from the local elections; the Timeline, curated by Valeria Palumbo, covers the most recent data on gender inequality, including the ‘Global Gender Gap Report 2025’, which records Italia’s drop of five places compared with the previous year. A different perspective is introduced by Marcella Campagnano, a leading figure in Italian feminist photography: ‘Roles (1974–1980)’, also presented at the Venice Biennale in 1995, dramatises the identities attributed to women, highlighting the stereotypes associated with them. ‘I wanted Campagnano at all costs,’ says Ferri. ‘The work introduces a different language to the exhibition compared with documentary photography.’
From document to market
Several images originating from photojournalism and activism have become collector’s items. Gianni Berengo Gardin, one of the most prominent Italian photographers on the market, commands a wide range of prices: last April, Finarte sold two vintage prints from the 1970s for €1,016 and €1,270, and one from 1988 for €3,048. His work is held in the Contrasto archive and the Gianni Berengo Gardin Archive. The secondary market for Paola Agosti, who is exhibiting two images and has been active in political and feminist photography since the 1970s, is more limited: at Finarte, a vintage print of ‘Femminismo’ was sold in 2020 for 179 euros, whilst four prints of ‘La donna e la macchina’ were estimated in 2021 at between 700 and 1,000 euros.
The Contemporary Body
At the centre of the exhibition hall is a separate section, ‘Del corpo delle donne’ (‘On Women’s Bodies’), featuring seven videos by female artists whose work spans photography, publishing and art. A shift in medium and approach: here, the documentary gives way to an artistic and symbolic language. Among them, Marilisa Cosello (Galleria Studio G7, Bologna; photographs, videos, objects and performances priced from 1,800 to 10,000 euros) explores the relationship between the female body, workplace discipline and gender stereotypes in her video *9to5*; Eleonora Agostini (Cartacea Galleria, Bergamo; photographs and videos up to 4,000 euros), with ‘A Study on Waitressing’, draws on her mother’s experience as a waitress to explore gestures and power dynamics in service work – a project that also gave rise to the photobook published by Witty Books in 2024 (38 euros, sold out), winner of the Aperture-Paris PhotoBook Award. Different languages and generations that continue to question the construction and representation of female roles, bodies and identities.
