Participatory Social Media project

A few days ago, a friend of mine sent me the link to the article the New York Times put out about Meghan Markle’s miscarriage. The article affected me in a pretty strong way and has inspired me to start a social media project about infertility and infant loss. I am looking for people to participate in the project.

Miscarriage is one of the most brutal things to experience. It can slay you emotionally, physically, and spiritually. When the New York Times put out the article about Meghan Markle and her miscarriage, it got me thinking about how (as in so many issues), the media gifts celebrities with a voice to openly talk about issues that affect countless people - in this case infant loss and struggles conceiving. The “common” folk often still have to struggle with how, when, if to talk about their struggles with loss, grief, and death.

This in no way is meant to lessen or discount Meghan's pain (or the pain of any celebrity voicing their experience). Celeb voices are so important in starting the conversation but it often feels like it just ends there. We may grieve for their loss. We may feel temporarily less alone if we have experienced something similar. But it mostly still remains a solitary thing and the conversation doesn't truly flow into community, or make it less taboo and scary to admit. It also doesn't give a platform for non-celebrities to tell their stories safely outside of their tight support network (assuming they even have a support network).

So I was thinking of creating a photo montage that mixes up portraits of people who have experienced loss and/or challenges conceiving with portraits of celebs who have had their voices resonate over the airwaves, giving equal voice to all. I would ideally like to shape the photos so that all together they make up an ultrasound of a uterus. I would like to invite people of all walks of life who have experienced loss or issues with fertility to have their faces as part of this project. This is for straight women, people in the lgbtq2s+ community, including trans men and women, people in relationships with a co-parent, single parents by choice, old and young.

If you would like more information or would like to participate, please feel free to contact me at myriam@thefighouse.ca.