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.
