Photographing the High Stakes of Ireland's Abortion Referendum

Isabel, 32, Dublin: Voting Yes. I’m voting Yes because from reading and listening to women’s stories, I think the situation as it is now is causing suffering and adding trauma to already difficult situations. I’ve done some campaigning and I know there are a lot of undecided people who are genuinely torn. It’s not an easy issue at all but I think it’s something the country has to face up to. © Jacobia Dahm

Luke Cheevers, 77, Dublin: Voting Yes. It is a very complex issue and no matter which side wins there is going to be losers. But I trust the women of Ireland, I really do, and so far it seems that the majority of the women are in favour of a Yes vote. Women want complete control over their own bodies. That should not be in the hands of the state. I think there is more of a possibility that I will vote Yes. © Jacobia Dahm

Melissa Byrne, 18, county Kildare: Voting No. I think every single human being deserves the right to life. I believe in having a progressive society, a society that speaks up for the voiceless and protects the defenseless.This referendum is not about choice, it's about whether or not we should allow one person to determine whether someone lives or dies. © Jacobia Dahm

Rita, 72, county Wicklow: Voting No. I was born in England. Of course, there was no abortion there at the time, but I was adopted as a child. My mother didn’t tell anyone she was expecting a baby. I still don’t know who my father was. I believe that I could well have been a victim of abortion if it had been there at the time. So I feel very strongly about it. © Jacobia Dahm

Sinéad Byrne, 37, county Wicklow: Voting Yes. I’m voting Yes because women in Ireland are afraid of being pregnant, they’re worrying will they survive pregnancy, they are asked for pregnancy tests regularly when they’re going for cancer treatment, and cannot access the healthcare they need when they’re pregnant, and so they’re denied making choices for their own health care, and for their own families as well. © Jacobia Dahm

Seamus Coogan, 47, Dublin: Voting Yes. As someone who is a passionate democrat, I believe in choice and that people should be free to make their own decision, whatever that may be. Without choice people are not free. That to me is not acceptable in a modern society. © Jacobia Dahm

Dr. Mary McAuliffe, 46, Dublin: Voting Yes. I have understood, through my studies in history, the control impulses that have been operating on women’s bodies over the centuries in this country, but particularly in the 20th century. It is time that our country matured and actually faced up to the fact that Irish women have been having abortions for decades, for the last hundreds of years, but now they need to do it safely in a caring and compassionate way. © Jacobia Dahm

Peadar O’Grady, 53, Dublin: Voting Yes. The central issue in this campaign is whether or not women get to decide on health care. This is a fundamental human right. The notion that people would consent on behalf of women means that there is no equality for women. And to live in a country where there is no equality is to live in a country where everyone’s rights are diminished. © Jacobia Dahm

Peter Laurent, 28, county Wexford: Voting Yes. It feels like we’re kicking a football down the road if we don’t sort this out now. This is a building block, perhaps, to make health care safer for women in Ireland and not have to export our problems elsewhere. We don’t necessarily need to copy other countries, but we have to deal with our problems and not sweep them under the carpet and act as if nothing is happening. © Jacobia Dahm

Jenny Fitzgibbon, 35, Dublin: Voting Yes. I really want to just give people an opportunity for choice. I have two children myself and I have also had miscarriages. I have had different experiences and I know how difficult it can be. I don’t know if it is a choice that I would myself make, but I don’t want to let my own thoughts about that inhibit somebody else. So that’s why I am voting Yes. © Jacobia Dahm

On May 25, 2018, a referendum on abortion took place in Ireland. The voters were deciding whether or not to repeal the eighth amendment of Ireland’s Constitution, which imposed a near-total ban on abortion. In a landslide, the country voted to repeal the ban, paving the way for pro-choice laws. Mindful that this historical event was approaching, Berlin-based photographer Jacobia Dahm pitched an idea about how to cover the voters’ deliberation. Dahm’s pitch found a home at the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Below, Dahm talks to PDN about formulating the pitch and delivering the final the product.

PDN: What inspired you to pitch a story about Ireland’s abortion referendum?
Jacobia Dahm: I was well aware the referendum was coming up on May 25, and I wanted to do some work on it. It seemed a momentous decision for Ireland. And, related conversations are being held elsewhere. The U.S. is worried about a repeal of Roe vs. Wade, and here in Germany, it is still illegal for doctors to mention on their website that they perform abortions. The week before the referendum, I decided I would go to Ireland to cover it. I thought the simplest yet most intimate way to approach it was to ask people directly how they felt. We tend to look from afar at the results of an election or a referendum. Getting up close provides a better and more nuanced understanding of how people come to their decisions. I laid out my idea to combine a portrait and a handwritten note to a handful of editors. Jason Chiu from The Globe and Mail quickly sent a positive response saying they’re interested and wanted to pursue this. I was delighted of course. Jason was very supportive, and in the end The Globe and Mail did a really stunning job on the visual presentation.

PDN: What did Chiu ask for in terms of visuals? How did you deliver that?
JD: In my original email I shared images from a story I had done in Germany for ZEIT that portrayed people at a solidarity march after an anti-Semitic attack in Berlin. He liked the way this was done – a portrait and a picture of a handwritten note from the protagonists with their name and age and profession, and thought this would work well for the referendum story too. I told Jason I wanted to spend one day in Dublin and one day in the countryside to get a sense of different Irish voters, and he supported that idea. We aimed for about 15-20 interviews and portraits.

PDN: Once in Dublin, how did you execute the assignment?  
JD: The key to this assignment was successfully weaving different skills together. I was the interviewer and the photographer at the same time, which made it a more intense experience, and in ways a more complete experience. I felt like a traveling salesman with all my gear, and it made people laugh that when I wrapped up with each person I talked myself through the to do list, making sure I had gotten all I needed. The to-do list was to interview people and record the interview with my iPhone, have them write their name and age on a piece of cardboard that I provided, write with a particular pen, have them sign the model release on my Easy Release app, take their portrait, and lastly take a picture of them holding the sign they made. It felt great to be doing all these different things at once and to own the whole project, and see it published shortly after delivery.

-Sarah Stacke

“My Vote: What’s at stake in Ireland’s abortion referendum”
Photographs and Text by Jacobia Dahm
Assigned by Jason Chiu at The Globe and Mail
Published May 24, 2018