MUVS Photography Competition: Stock Photos on Abortion

Dec 28, 2017

Abortion is still a taboo: The topic is annoying, polarizing, stigmatizing, and even criminalizes women. Media coverage on abortion represents a one-sided visual language for a simple reason: Little to no useful stock photo material is available to depict the reality of this part of life. Therefore, MUVS Vienna is reaching out to obtain photographs that illustrate the critical situation of a woman (or couple) with an unwanted pregnancy in a realistic way. Photographers are invited to grapple with the difficult topic of unwanted pregnancy and abortion in a creative way. MUVS wants this competition to contribute in a useful and important way to the further destigmatisation of abortion.

There was a lot of positive, appreciative feedback, and the images submitted illustrate just how heterogeneous the theme is. A four-person jury, from the fields of journalism, photography, art and medicine selected the three main prize winners and awarded an additional three commendation prizes.

The winner of our photo competition, Christina Lag-Schröckenstein, together with her model, Veronika, was presented with her prize in a low-key event at the MUVS. The photographer saw it as a challenge to approach with sensitivity and understanding a competition whose intention it was to objectively illustrate the life circumstances of women affected by unwanted pregnancies, and to thus create a counterpoint to the so far one-sided portrayal of this topic in the media. The photographer made it her goal to depict a self-aware woman who reaches her decisions autonomously and without any outside influence. An undertaking she succeeded in, and which was appreciated by the four people on the jury.

The winning photos and further information can be found at http://abortion-pictures.info/en/.

Source: http://en.muvs.org/museum/muvs-photography-competition/