16 Days of Activism 2023
Throughout the 16 days of activism, we have posted about the work of women photographers who are highlighting violence against women in its many different forms, read their stories here....
Multidisciplinary artist Laia Abril (b. 1986, Spain) focuses on complex stories of psychological disorders, misogyny, sexuality, gender, and reproductive rights in her relatively recent but extensive opus. Completing a degree in journalism in Barcelona, she continued her studies at the International Centre of Photography (New York). Working as a staff photographer and picture editor at Colors magazine (FABRICA research centre, Italy) substantially shaped her creative approach, visual storytelling through research-based photo documentation.
Laia, as a true journalist, uses all the information she can gather. Carefully combining existing research and archive material with her photography work, she artistically voices the essence of collective, mostly female, trauma. In her trilogy A History of Misogyny; Chapter One: On Abortion (2016), Chapter 2: On Rape Culture(2021) and Genesis Chapter: On Mass Hysteria, she simultaneously reinvents narratives imposed on society by Western patriarchy, and renews the photographic medium itself. In this intersection of past and present, a fusion of actual reports with symbolic representation, Laia explores how well the historic myths reflect current reality, shedding new light on its foundations.
The ground-breaking scale of her work on misogyny is resonating not only in critical photographic circles but with the broader public as well. Laia has received several awards and grants, such as Tim Hetherington Trust’s Visionary Award (2018), Photobook of the Year award (2018), the Hood Medal (2019), the Paul Huf Award (2020) and others. Frequently exhibiting all over the world, she translates her ideas through various mediums, such as photobooks, installations, web docs and others. Laia is represented by the Parisian gallery Les Filles du Calvaire.
