EL GRITO DEL SILENCIO

 

Out of the silence came out a cry

According to a global study of the World Health Organization published in 2013, 35 percent of women have experienced physical and / or sexual violence.
However, some national studies show that up to 70 percent of women have faced physical and / or sexual violence by an intimate partner during their lifetime.
More than 64 million girls worldwide are child brides and some 140 million girls and women have suffered genital mutilation; human trafficking is a trap for millions of women and girls who become modern era slaves, rape is a widespread tactic of modern warfare.
In Bolivia, a patriarchal system dominates society, which is strongly linked to violence and discrimination against women of all ages. Every three days a woman is killed.
During 14 months, I portrayed women in Bolivia, all are victims of violence, with a long history of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse; some of them are in a process of empowerment while others are still at risk of being killed by their partners or husbands.
The silence screamed and these women had the courage to reveal its face and to lose the fear of being identified and criticized in a society that culturally, promotes and naturalizes the abuse and violation of women's rights; they testified and protested against the violence they suffered, denouncing the unacceptable abuse and violation of their rights.
The personal attire presented in this series belonged to the murdered women and girls; they are the evidence of their irrational and unnecessary absence and represent the most irreversible consequence of gender violence, Femicide.
Thanks to the confidence placed in me by the women protagonists in these images and by the mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers of the victims of Femicide, a relationship of complicity between these people and me, was built, and allowed me to reveal their human condition through photographic portraits.
I do not care to portray women with bruises; I am interested in achieving real, strong and intimate images, free from the stigma of battered women.
This project is dedicated to the hundreds of millions of girls, adolescents and women which have had similar experiences to the protagonists portrayed in my work, and to all the people, who will discover these images and understand the testimonies, and who will be able to reflect on the lives that exist and existed behind these faces.
My work within this project was primarily guided by intimacy and trust.


These images are a commitment to dignify these people.