Abril, Laia

A journalist by training, Laia Abril works with photography, video, sound, and text to investigate issues of gender inequality. Her massive project titled A History of Misogyny consists of five chapters: On Rape, On Abortion, On Mass Hysteria, Menstruation Myths, and Feminicides. The works in the Museum of Contemporary Photography permanent collection are from the chapter On Abortion (2016-18), which outlines the history of birth control and the consequences of restricting women’s access to safe and legal abortion. Abril traveled the world to compile the stories and photographs that make up her extensive archive, meeting with doctors, historians, and women who have had harrowing and life-threatening experiences while seeking to terminate a pregnancy. These stories straightforwardly chronicle the agonizing choices made by women who seek abortions, illuminating the acute desperation of women throughout history to determine the conditions for if whether or when they choose to become mothers. Abril also details the consequences of not being able to do so, including being imprisoned, nearly dying, and having long-term medical and psychological trauma.

Born in Barcelona, Spain, Laia Abril earned a degree in journalism before moving to New York to study photography at the International Center of Photography. In 2009, she joined the artist residency at FABRICA, the Benetton Research Center in Italy, working as a photo editor and staff photographer at Colors Magazine until 2014. Her work has been shown at Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024), Musée de l’Elysée in Switzerland (2015), the Museum of Sex, New York (2012-2020), and the Finnish Museum of Photography (2019), among others. Her book The Epilogue (2014), which chronicles the story of a family in the aftermath of losing their 26-year-old daughter to bulimia, was shortlisted for the Paris Photo-Aperture First Book Award, Kassel PhotoBook Festival, and the Photo España Best Book Award. Her book On Abortion: And the Repercussions of Lack of Access (2018) was the winner of the Aperture Best Book Award in 2018. She is the 2023 Recipient of the National Photography Award of Spain.