After publishing a book with 100 pair of breasts, a book with 100 penises followed. The third book of photographer Laura Dodsworth contains 100 photos of vulvas.
Womanhood: the bare reality
Throughout a year, Dosdworth photographed the most intimite part of 100 women. These photos are now published in the book ‘ Womanhood: The Bare Reality’. A number of these women have been interviewed for a documentary that will be aired on February, 19th, 2019 on the British Channel 4, with the titel ‘100 vagina’s’.
This project is the last of Dodsworth’s ‘Bare Reality’ trilogy. She decided to make this book after reading about Female Genital Mutilation and plastic surgery.
Dodsworth consciously uses the word vulva (and not vagina), because vulva is actually the correct name for what you see of the female genitalia on the outside. The vagina is the channel on the inside that connects the vulva with the uterus.
‘The vulva is like a landscape and we actually only know one route that leads to that and that is through sex and porn. Where else would you see a vulva? But if women talk about their vulva, so many stories come up, that it felt like I discovered a new route. Many of those stories were kind of difficult. It was about things like traumatic birth, bad sexual experiences, but also about more innocent things like the first period.’
Intimate revelations
After her announcement, ze already had received 100 volunteers. She chose women with different backgrounds and stories. She then made a picture ans interviewed each person.
Dodsworth doesn’t expect there will be a follow up, because she can’t imagine there are body parts that she could treat. When she photographed penisses, she was called a whore, pervert and cockaholic. This was different. Few women really look closely to themselves. This was revealing.
A number of the stories of the women on the photos have been published in other media, such as the BBC and in The Guardian.
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