Beyond the Monocular Eyesight: Lessons from Italian Women Photographers in the Seventies

This chapter explores the meaning and transformative power of photographic art through the analysis of Italian women photographers’ work in the Seventies, a biographical, philosophical, collective, and critical way of representation that fuels reflexivity about adult experience as individuals, citizens, and members of society. In the Seventies, the need for social and cultural change was expressed collectively by diverse actors through public alliances and manifestations, but also private and intimate practices of self-consciousness. Women became the unexpected subject on public scenes, bringing creativity and relationality to the forefront. New feminist pedagogies and ‘another gaze’ on reality built hope for the future. In the present crisis, remembering the past, and using arts-based relational pedagogies to explore experience and share action, are transformative ways of doing critical adult education.