Scarlett Coten dedicates herself essentially to personal long-term projects, mainly exploring the themes of identity, gender, and intimacy through photographic portraiture. Coten’s work has been widely exhibited and recognised with numerous awards, including the Leica Oskar Barnack Award in 2016 and the Photolucida Top 50 Critical Mass 2018.
In 2019, Plan américain has been shortlisted in the Sony World Photography Awards (Portraiture category), the PHmuseum Photography Grant, the Grand Prix ImageSingulières of documentary photography, and the Bourse du Musée Albert-Kahn.
Coten started her exploration of the complexities of contemporary masculinity in the Arab World (Mectoub 2012/2016) well before the resurgence of feminist activism sparks global conversations, and more recently, the age of Trump inspired her to continue the next chapter in the U.S. (Plan américain 2017/2019)
By inviting men to pose for her and by focusing on non-conformity and vulnerability, the photographer shakes up sexist and reductive gender stereotypes, removing any cliché or stigma of sensitivity, to reveal a broader, more inclusive concept of masculinity.
This body of work, which is empathetic, addressing themes of patriarchy, power, identity, race, sexuality, the unequal power relations between genders, and the female perception of men, considers the necessity of alternative viewpoints with the aim to reimagining gendered identity for today’s world, accompanied by a desire to subvert a desperately masculinised art history.
Monography
Still alive, Actes Sud Publisher, France – 2009
Upcoming: Mectoub and Plan américain, Franco American co-publishing – 2021
Anthologies and Exhibition catalogs
Patriarchy is burning, Gang of Witches editions, France – 2019
Firecrackers: Female Photographers Now, Thames and Hudson, London – 2017
Second Biennal of the Photographers from the Contemporary Arab World, Institut du Monde Arabe – 2017, Silvana Editoriale– 2017
Photographers Sketchbooks, Thames and Hudson, London – 2014
Caravane(s), L’erre de rien Editions, France – 2014
Mediterranean landscapes, Macrosonges Editions, France – 2013
La photographie entre histoire et poésie, Editions Mazzotta, Photographies de la collection Fnac – 2002
More info: www.scarlettcoten.com