(Summer Sale) I Am The Only Woman There by Bertien van Manen

A publication by Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen.

A collection of works by Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen.

In 1975, when he decided to become a documentary photographer, van Manen picked up the book The Seventh Man: Migrant Workers in Europe by British critic John Berger. The book is a non-fiction book that covers the lives of European migrant workers, but the interviews by two men did not include the Muslim women.

Van Manen felt that this was the subject he should tackle himself, and so he began creating the series Vrouwen te Gast. Van Manen photographed wives and women migrants from Turkey, Italy, Spain, Morocco, Yugoslavia, Tunisia, Portugal, and Greece, as they struggled to survive in a foreign culture at home, at work, at parties, and during leisure activities.

This work was later published as van Manen's first photobook by feminist publisher Sara in Amsterdam, and it inspired van Manen to start a Dutch language course for migrant women in the area and to have them interact with the local residents. In 2024, van Manen revisited her own photographs and texts, adding newly discovered photographs from her archive and new texts to complete I am the only woman there.

—

Title: I am the only woman there
Artist: Bertien van Manen
Publisher: Fw: Books, 2024
Format: Linen hardcover
Size: 229 × 174 mm
Pages: 160
Language: English
Edition: First edition
ISBN: 9789083451008