Marc Garanger - Femmes Algériennes 1960 - 2002

The series “Algerian Women 1960” is a major historical photographic work created by French photographer Marc Garanger in the midst of the Algerian War. Initially conceived as forced identity photos for the colonial administration, these portraits have become the universal symbol of a silent protest and a resistance to oppression.

Historical context
In 1960, Marc Garanger performs his military service in Algeria. Worn by a deep disagreement with this war, he is appointed the official photographer of his regiment.

The French army then decides to register the population of the “gathering villages” — guarded camps where indigenous civilians were displaced to cut support to the FLN maquis. To control their movements, the administration demands the creation of mandatory French identity cards. Marc Garanger receives orders to photograph all the villagers, at a frenetic pace of up to 200 faces per day.

Algerian Women 1960 Marc Garanger
The series “Algerian Women 1960” is a major historical photographic work created by French photographer Marc Garanger in the midst of the Algerian War. Initially conceived as forced identity photos for the colonial administration, these portraits have become the universal symbol of a silent protest and a resistance to oppression.

La Nouvelle Chambre Claire
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Historical context
In 1960, Marc Garanger performs his military service in Algeria. Worn by a deep disagreement with this war, he is named the official photographer of his regiment.

La Nouvelle Chambre Claire
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The French army then decides to register the population of the “gathering villages” — guarded camps where indigenous civilians were displaced to cut support to the FLN maquis. To control their movements, the administration demands the creation of mandatory French identity cards. Marc Garanger receives orders to photograph all the villagers, at a frenetic pace of up to 200 faces per day.

La Nouvelle Chambre Claire
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A symbolic violence
The majority of the photographed individuals are women, men having often joined the maquis. The obligation to pose for these photos engenders deep trauma:

Municipal Library of Lyon
The forced unveiling: By order of the military command, Kabyle and Chaoui women are compelled to remove their veil or traditional headdress in front of the lens.

An intimate profanation: For these women, exposing their faces to a foreign, uniformed man constitutes a brutal stripping and a total contempt for their traditions.

Aware of taking part in an administrative dehumanization project, Marc Garanger chooses to divert his commission. Instead of mere standardized identity photos, he adopts a tight frontal framing, inspired by the work of Edward S. Curtis on Native Americans.

Face to face, the targeted women resist ferociously:

Their faces, marked by ritual tattoos and adorned with traditional jewelry, fix the camera with fierce intensity.
Their expressions betray no submission, but an absolute dignity, royal contempt, and incandescent anger.
This confrontation turns the camera into a mirror reflecting the colonizer’s violence.

Marc Garanger manages to clandestinely remove the negatives from Algeria. In 1966, he receives the prestigious Niépce Prize for this work, which is then published in the international press. The complete series is the subject of a memorable book, Algerian Women 1960, first published in 1982.

Today, these images are preserved in the world’s greatest institutions, notably at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. They remain one of the most powerful visual testimonies of the Algerian War and of the strength of the gaze in the face of colonial domination.

3. The 2002 reissue (Éditions Atlantica)
Published on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the ceasefire in Algeria.