• Richard Gosnold It Starts With Silence
  • Richard Gosnold It Starts With Silence
  • Richard Gosnold It Starts With Silence
  • Richard Gosnold It Starts With Silence
  • Richard Gosnold It Starts With Silence

Richard Gosnold It Starts With Silence

Imagine that abortion is illegal, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Imagine that there is a pregnancy, which is doomed to end in tragedy.
Imagine that there is nothing you can do.
Nothing you can do, but wait.

It Starts With Silence addresses subject matter, which many consider taboo. It forms a photographic narrative around the illegality of abortion and how that law affected the artist as a man, a husband, and a father. It Starts With Silence is a poignant story, in which the artist takes the reader on a deeply personal journey, as he searches for under-standing and solace. It depicts his struggle to see beauty in the world, whilst knowing that he is powerless to help his wife and daughter. Richard Gosnold and his wife were told, at twenty weeks’ gestation, that their expected baby was fatally ill. If the baby survived birth, she would suffer terrible pain, until she stopped breathing.

Employing photography and text, Richard Gosnold powerfully communicates the complexities of his emotions. He reflects upon his sense of place, within the political and physical landscape of Northern Ireland, a place to which his wife was desperate to return, and a place where politicians remain fanatical in their desire to control the bodies of pregnant people.
This is a work of protest, which is informed by personal conversations, conversations held in small rooms, behind closed doors; conversations which help to persuade policymakers, who have the power to change laws.
It is a sorrowful lament, a work of love for all who are troubled with crisis pregnancies, a message of hope and solidarity for all whose voices are lost among the chaos of political discourse. Set in a small province in the North of Ireland, this story remains politically relevant and resonates around the world.

It Starts With Silence was shortlisted for the Unseen Dummy Award in 2019.

"Ten years ago there was no work about abortion in Northern Ireland. The fact that this book exists ist really incredible and really powerful. It is going to be a piece of history."
Emma Campbell, Alliance for Choice

Hardcover 16,5 x 22 cm 142 pages 21 color and 55 b/w illustrations English Available ISBN 978-3-96900-022-9 2021

Artist:

Richard Gosnold

Texts:

Richard Gosnold

Design:

Kehrer Design (Loreen Lampe)

Preview

Exhibitions

In Our Own Image: Photography & the Social Gaze
(Group Exhibition)
Photo Museum Ireland, Dublin
17.09.–05.11.2022

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