Marie Docher

Marie Docher (born 1963 Auvergne ) is a French photographer, director and feminist and lesbian activist . She is c-founder of the La Part des femmes collective . In 2021, she was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Life

Marie Docher was born in 1963, and grew up in Clermont-Ferrand. Her father was an amateur photographer  . She began practicing photography at the age of 12, with a Kodak camera given to her by her aunt. . After a literary baccalaureate, which did not allow her to access technical training, she entered the École supérieure de commerce de Clermont-Ferrand , where she studied at the photo laboratory..

She began her career in Paris in 1987, as an executive in the publishing and communications sector  . She sometimes hired studio photographers, which was perceived at the time as a male profession. In 1994, Marie Docher switched to open her own agency. In 1995, she met the photographer and visual artist Isabelle Rozenbaum . The latter, who had just created an image bank , encouraged her to reconnect with photography and commissioned a series of images on religion.

She photographed her Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. This work is exhibited under the title Santiago at Voies Off d'Arle s 2003. Marie Docher also worked as a photographer for the magazines Sciences et Vie and Sciences et Vie Découvertes  .