ESCARABAJO STUDIO PORTRAITS BY KARINA MUENCH
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EL GRITO DEL SILENCIO
​
OUT OF THE SILENCE CAME OUT A CRY
Picture
Trasatlántica PHE
02.06 – 01.08.2015
Centro Andaluz de la Fotografía
​Almería, Spain
​

07-27.01.2015
Lichthof der Deza
Bern, Switzerland


Latent Element, Ten Photographers from Latin America
25.07.2014 - 21.09.2014
SESC Santana
 São Paulo, Brazil


PhotoEspaña International Festival of photography and visual arts / Official section
6.06.2014 – 26.07.2014 
Casa de América
Madrid, Spain
​14.03.2014 - 20.04.2014
Centro Cultural Estación Mapocho
Santiago de Chile


10-26.01.2014
Centro Pedagógico y Cultural Simón I. Patiño
Cochabamba, Bolivia


02-30.08.2013
Centro Cultural Simón I. Patiño
Santa Cruz, Bolivia


19.04.2013 – 16.05.2013
Museo Nacional de Arte
La Paz, Bolivia
In Bolivia, a patriarchal system continues to dominate society, deeply intertwined with the violence and discrimination faced by women of all ages. 
Over the course of 14 months, I photographed women across Bolivia—each of them a survivor of violence. Their stories are marked by prolonged physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Some are in the process of reclaiming their power; others remain at risk of being killed by their partners or husbands.
The silence screamed. These women found the courage to reveal its face, overcoming the fear of being recognized and judged in a culture that not only tolerates but normalizes the abuse and violation of women’s rights. They spoke out, bearing witness to the violence they endured and denouncing the injustices inflicted upon them.
The personal belongings featured in this series belonged to women and girls who were murdered. These items are not just remnants—they are stark evidence of their irrational and unnecessary absence. They symbolize the most irreversible outcome of gender-based violence: femicide.
Thanks to the trust placed in me by the women portrayed in these images—and by the mothers, fathers, and grandparents of the victims of femicide—I was able to build a relationship of deep empathy and complicity. This connection allowed me to portray their humanity through intimate photographic portraits.
I am not interested in depicting women with visible bruises. What I seek are honest, powerful, and intimate images—free from the stigma of the "battered woman" narrative.
This project is dedicated to the hundreds of millions of girls, adolescents, and women whose experiences mirror those of the individuals portrayed here. And to all those who encounter these images, may you listen to the testimonies, reflect on these lives, and bear witness to the stories behind each face.
These images are a commitment to dignify these people.
AGON
​PRIX PHOTOFORUM 2009
Picture
Selection 2009 Photoforum PasquArt
12.2009
Centre PasquArt
Bienne, Switzerland
Boxing is tragic and cruel. Boxing is a drama; it is about feeling and enduring beatings and pain, it is a determination to experience physical and mental suffering in order to achieve a goal. I am extremely interested in this human condition of continuous and voluntary suffering, whether during the harsh and disciplined training or throughout the show of the fight. Preparing for a fight resembles a ritual, made up of moments of intense internalization, physical and mental pain, as well as exhaustion as a result of the training and the anticipation of the coming fight in the ring.
This awareness allows me to create images of female boxers in their most intimate states—in moments of tense stillness, submerged within themselves, as well as within the cruelty and the passion with which two women face each other during the fight. This situation does not simply occur in everyday life, it is something that ordinary people do not experience.
These female boxers fight to experience the essence of boxing: a fight and an exploration of their own mental and physical limits.
TIPNIS
Picture
Fifteen photographers + Cordero archive 
VIII Larga noche de museos 
05.2014
CAF Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina
La Paz, Bolivia
Over 2,000 Indigenous people marched for 66 days, covering nearly 600 kilometers—from the city of Trinidad, in the Amazonian department of Beni, to the seat of government in La Paz, high in the Bolivian Andes. They protested the construction of a modern highway that, if completed, would cut through their ancestral lands and the ecological reserve of the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS).
They arrived in La Paz on October 19, 2011.
These portraits were taken just moments after their arrival.
©2025 Karina Muench. All Rights Reserved.
​Copyright laws protect all of the images on this site, which are the exclusive property of Karina Muench.
Images may not be copied, reproduced, manipulated, used, or altered in any way without written permission.
The use of any image is a violation of copyright.
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