The Visual Turn of Ribu: Photographs by Matsumoto Michiko of the 1970s

In the early 1970s, emerging photographer Matsumoto Michiko (1950–) turned her camera towards Ūman Ribu (Women’s Liberation Movement). Published in both the mainstream press and the self-produced materials of various Ribu collectives, Matsumoto’s work provided a striking visual account of the movement’s activities and of the matters on which the radical feminists insisted. Women’s self-determination, control over their bodies, the deconstruction of social and familial structures: all these elements can be traced in Matsumoto’s visual narratives, which became instrumental for Ribu to reappropriate their own representations from the negative views offered by the mass media.