Eating and cooking are sources of pleasure. In Les Femmes Ont Faim (Women Are Hungry), Anna Leonte Loron starts from this simple premise to reveal everything that is deeply troubling about contemporary female experiences. While food appeals to the senses, sensuality and desire, for many women it is also associated with stories of deprivation, control, guilt and silence.
In the collective imagination, women are still mainly represented in the kitchen or serving, but rarely at the table. And when they do eat, it is either very little in order to respect the codes of discreet femininity or in a spectacular way, in imagery that diverts the act of eating in favor of the gaze that consumes it. As Lauren Malka analyses in her essay Mangeuses, images have played a large part in constructing a culture of restriction and shame, where women rarely eat for themselves.
Les Femmes Ont Faim is part of this critical reflection, while drawing on an intimate and shared experience. The project stems from an observation: that these behaviours are repeated from generation to generation, sometimes even within the closest circles. Faced with this repetition, Anna Leonte Loron chooses to produce images that shift the gaze and open up new representations.
The photographer takes pictures of women eating. Alone or with their sisters. But always for their own pleasure. Here, women cease to be objects of desire and become subjects of their own appetite. The gestures are simple biting, chewing, finishing a plate long invisible when performed by women.
The project takes the form of a multidisciplinary ensemble combining photographs, videos, installations and archives. The photographic series interact with a film showing women sitting down to eat for pleasure, as well as with an installation displaying the remains of a dinner party for women, which actually took place in this location. These traces plates, glasses, leftovers become images and bear witness to a moment of sharing, conviviality, and pleasure.
As announced at the entrance by the contact sheet À Toutes les Miches, Les Femmes Ont Faim is a project aimed at women, all women. It is also a project that is being built with them. Led by a predominantly female team and supported by numerous collaborators, it is conceived as a collective experience as much as an exhibition.
After an initial presentation in Paris in 2025 and the award of the Dotation LGA Management / Janvier Prix Picto de la Mode, the project is continuing its development at the Centre Photographique de Marseille.
The exhibition will be held from the 6th to the 21st of March 2026 at the Centre Photographique Marseille, with a preview in the evening of March 5th.
74 Rue de la Joliette, 13002 Marseille
