STATE OF SILENCE

Honorary Mention - 16th Annual Julia Margaret Cameron Award for Women Photographers

State of Silence is a visual exploration of the culture of shame surrounding female sexuality in Ireland, and the physical and emotional abuse that was inflicted upon the thousands of women that passed through Mother and Baby homes run by religious orders through the course of the 20th century. It is a response to dehumanisation of unmarried pregnant women by the Catholic Church and Irish state, and the persistent silencing of women's voices and the erasure of their bodies in Irish society.