The book will be presented by photographer, in dialogue with Michael Tangeman, writer and collector who has lived for many years in Mexico and is now based in Valencia since 2015.
About the book
Other women (The Luminous, Argentina-Mexico, 2024) is a long-term photographic project carried out by Judith Romero over the course of a decade. The book brings together twenty portraits and testimonies of women who have decided not to be mothers, articulating documentary photography, oral history and personal archive to reflect on autonomy, desire and contemporary ways of inhabiting femininity outside the traditional mandates of motherhood.
The project arises from a personal experience: the lack of visual and emotional references around the decision not to have children. From that, Judith Romero began a search for women from different generations, territories and social contexts that shared this decision, building a space for dialogue, listening and trust through extended meetings and intimate conversations. More than just recording bodies or faces, The images approach everyday universes, objects, memoirs, spaces and atmospheres that make up the unique experience of each participant.
Far from proposing a homogeneous or classifying vision, Other women explore the multiple contradictions, nuances and complexities of contemporary motherhood and non-motherhood. The project understands the decision not to have children not as a denial, but as a way to question normative gender representations, as well as social mandates, family and cultural taxes historically imposed on women's bodies.
The protagonists—from countries like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Spain, France, Poland and the United States—reveal experiences linked to childhood, religion, autonomy, the care, the right to decide and the different ways to confront social pressure and stereotypes associated with femininity. Through these visualities and stories, The project proposes a collective reflection on the diversity of possible ways of life and on the need to defend chosen motherhoods and non-motherhoods..
Published by La Luminosa publishing house, Other women It is situated between contemporary documentary photography and critical feminist practices., understanding the image as a memory tool, listening and social transformation.
