(AFTER)CARE

TRAUMA . VULnerability . ACCOUNTABILITY

With this new issue entitled “(After)care“, The Eyes explores the methods and approaches of photographers who address the most traumatic chapters of our individual and collective histories.

After collaborating with SMITH (Transgalactic, 2020) and Johny Pitts (B-Side, 2021), we invited the Spanish artist Laia Abril to take over the content of the magazine.

This 13th issue is built around a notion that permeates Laia Abril’s practice, namely the question of care in a post-traumatic context – “(After)care” in English.

© Ana Vallejo, Neuromantic                                  © Hoda Afshar, Agonistes

© Jérémie Danon, Plein Air

This issue explores the role of responsibility in the process of photography. Many questions are raised in this issue: how do we portray our deepest wounds? What is the significance of vulnerability in the creation of photographs? How can we ensure that the violence of the world is not repeated through the violence of images?

This issue of The Eyes features a variety of works and books by artists who all represent, in their own way, a practice of “photographic care”. The works address subjects as diverse as colonial wars, natural disasters, sexual and gender violence, and disability. Texts and interviews with researchers and artists broaden the reflection on this subject, which is as yet little discussed.

© Aida Silvestri, Unsterile Clinic                          © Kitra Cahana, Still Man

© Margo Ovcharenko, Country of Women            © Hayley Millar Baker, I Will Survive

ABOUT Laia Abril

© Mahalanuuk, Laia Abril

Laia Abril is a research-based artist working with photography, text and sound. After graduating in journalism and working as an editor at the magazine Colors, she focused on developing long-term projects on uneasy and hidden realities about women’s rights, grief and bio-politics.

She is the author of several books: The Epilogue (2014, Dewi Lewis); Lobismuller (2016, RM); On Abortion (2018, Dewi Lewis), which was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize and was the winner of the Paris Photo – Aperture PhotoBook Awards; and On Rape (Dewi Lewis, 2022). Her installations have been exhibited in more than 15 countries and are part of collections such as the Centre Pompidou, FRAC, Musée de l’Elysée, Fotomuseum Winterthur, MoCP and MNAC.

Her career has been recognized with the Prix de la Photo Madame Figaro – Arles, the Hood Medal in London and the Foam Paul Huf Award in Amsterdam, among others. She is based in Barcelona and is represented by the Parisian gallery Les Filles du Calvaire.

TEXTS

Taous Dahmani

Historian of photography and member of the editorial board of The Eyes

Laia Abril

Artist, researcher and guest curator of The Eyes #13

Ana Vallejo, Hayley Millar Baker, Hoda Afshar, Kitra Cahana, Margo Ovcharenko, Max Pinckers, Robert Andy Coombs, Masina & Gal, Jérémie Danon.

NETWORKS OF MUTUAL CARE

PORTFOLIOS

12 Artists PORTFOLIOS                                 

Hoda Afshar

Robert Andy Coombs

Kitra Cahana

Joana Choumali

Jérémie Danon

Masina & Gal

Hayley Millar Baker

Margo Ovcharenko

Max Pinckers

Aida Silvestri

Ana Vallejo

Carmen Winant

9 books Portfolios

Sick in Bed, Cheryl Newman

Midlife, Elinor Carucci

Dry, Abdo Shanan

Licking War Wounds, Andrii Dostliev & Lia Dostlieva

Jardin de mi Padre, Luis Carlos Tovar

Small Wars, An-My Le

The Restoration Will, Mayumi Suzuki

Faire Face. Histoires de violences conjugales, Camille Gharbi

Where my Heart Settles Down, Wang Yingying

They talk about it