HABITAT — Elo Vazquez

HABITAT (Digital) / Spain/Iceland 2020 - ongoing

I knew I wanted to be a mother the day I saw a pair of tiny Levi's Strauss in a department store. The idea of a little human fitting into that wonderfully well-sewn piece of fabric, such a replica of a real one, awakened a type of tenderness in me that I hadn’t felt before. Don't worry, you're young, you have time. Little did I know at that time about the legs up, the waiting rooms, the hysterosalpingogram, the thermometer that didn’t read 37.2ºC every day, the almosts, the prescriptions, the coral of every month. Don’t get obsessed, these things happen for a reason. It's fine.

HABITAT is a retrospective personal account of my years of infertility (of searching, waiting, treatments, rituals, uncertainty), but at the same time looking for common ground with those who have gone through the same experience throughout history. The body of work consists of pictures of sensations, feelings, rituals and portraits of the children of friends born in the five years I tried unsuccessfully to get pregnant. With this project I want to raise awareness of a reality that is generally unknown because it’s normally lived in silence, but that affects and will continue to affect future generations — by the year 2050, 41% of men will be infertile and will need assisted reproduction techniques to conceive.

(See HABITAT’s online viewing room from Art Photo Barcelona here.)