When good photography is used to break a taboo: shocked by a politician’s comment about a journalist (“She had blood coming out of her wherever!”), Victor d’Allant interviewed and photographed women going through menstruation.

 

In the introduction to SHE HAD BLOOD (to be published in September 2023), French feminist authoress Elise Thiébaut writes: "A visual anthropologist by trade, Victor d’Allant embarked with his daughter on an exploration of menstruation the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated President of the United States. Closely involving his sitters with the production of his pictures, he gives us the exact opposite of the male gaze. His purpose is not to appropriate our menses or to change them, but rather to heal and reconcile what needed repairing after years of taboo. He always does so with kindness, while emphasizing each individual’s unique story."

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These women hail from the U.S., Germany, England, South Korea, China, Mexico, Chile, Cuba, India, even Saudi Arabia, thus ensuring that SHE HAD BLOOD has a multicultural reach. And a global social impact. A social entrepreneur said: “Your work is important to start a conversation. It's vital, as a woman, that I see representations of my life, my experiences, my body, in art and in culture. Because once we give it a name, we don't have to be ashamed of it anymore.”

 

In a recent article in French daily newspaper 20 Minutes, (see page 6 of this PDF) Victor d'Allant was the only male mentioned in a list of leading artists working on menstruation, a list that includes Judy Chicago, Valie Export, Gina Pane, Kiki Smith, Tracey Emin, Elise Thiébaut, Marianne Rosenstiehl and Rupi Kaur. A couple of his photos were used by TV5 MONDE to illustrate the social issues about menstruation.