women by women: a global open call by photovogue

This year’s PhotoVogue Global Open Call celebrates the limitless ways women see and are seen—embracing photography and film as powerful tools to reclaim, redefine, and expand visual storytelling.

The Urgency of Representation

The illusion of linear progress – the belief that rights, visibility, and recognition are irrevocable – has been shattered by the current political climate. Around the world, we are witnessing increasing pushback against women's autonomy, from reproductive rights to freedom of expression, reminding us that what once seemed secure can also be taken away.

As these rights are contested, it becomes more urgent than ever to not only consider how women see but how they continue to carve out spaces for their perspectives. In a world where their ability to shape narratives and define vision remains a battleground, representation is both an act of resistance and a tool for change.

For generations, women have fought not only to reclaim how they are seen but to assert their right to see on their own terms. Photography and video have long been arenas where vision is not just about aesthetics but about power.

This year's PhotoVogue Global Open Call is dedicated to Women by Women – a celebration of the myriad ways women represent themselves and each other through photography and video.

From The Female Gaze to Women’s Vision

This is not a new conversation. In 2016, the PhotoVogue Festival explored The Female Gaze, featuring artists such as Cindy Sherman, Petra Collins, Aida Muluneh, Nan Goldin, and Zanele Muholi. At the time, it felt urgent and revolutionary – a necessary counterpoint to the Male Gaze theorized by Laura Mulvey. A new generation of female photographers and filmmakers was reclaiming their right to look and be looked at on their own terms.

Nearly a decade later, we ask: Does The Female Gaze still capture the evolving complexity of how women see today? While female-led perspectives in photography, film, and video have expanded, systemic barriers persist. Women continue to face disparities in visibility, opportunity, and financial stability. Meanwhile, digital platforms, while offering new avenues for representation, have also intensified scrutiny, commodified feminist narratives, and constrained women's freedom of expression.

Perhaps The Female Gaze, as a direct response to The Male Gaze, is no longer sufficient – it remains tied to a binary opposition. Instead, contemporary feminist and critical theories have expanded our understanding of vision and representation, moving beyond rigid categories to embrace fluidity, intersectionality, and self-definition.

Women by Women: Reclaiming the Narrative

In 2016, The Female Gaze was a crucial intervention in a world where women's perspectives had long been overlooked. It was an essential step in reclaiming space in visual culture.

Nearly a decade later, the conversation must evolve. This open call moves beyond a binary response to The Male Gaze, embracing a more fluid, intersectional approach that reflects the complexities of identity, power, and representation today.

In 2025, Women by Women affirms that women's vision is not merely a reaction to The Male Gaze – it is a powerful force in its own right, free to shape its own narrative.

If the camera is power, then let's wield it – in our own voices, in our own thousand ways.