ABSTRACT
the Algerian War (1954-1962) was for France somewhat like what the Vietnam War was for the United States: a painful era, woven with errors and official denial, unconsciously repressed so that even today, French people find it difficult to confront direcdy. The Algerian War has scarcely been documented in France. One could even describe the French response to the war as one of collective amnesia, so rare have testimonies about it been, at least until the last few years. ‘Berber or Muslim, the women came from the neighboring villages: Ain Terzine, Bordj Okhriss, the Mezdour, the Meghine, Souk el Kremis. The Algerian women, never photographed before and probably never to be photographed again, recall in the stiffness of their pose and the intensity of their look the beginnings of photography.
