A suitable hobby for the clergy

Both colour photography and the laws against abortion in Ireland were made in 1861, an era of exaggerated femininity but also the emerging suffragette movement, when butterfly collecting was seen as the appropriate hobby for the clergy or single women. Whilst butterflies are often regarded as symbols of freedom by many cultures, this collection of 40 passport photo butterflies is made to highlight the 40 women a week who fail to access abortion in their own country and must travel abroad, alone and in secret, bearing the stigma of religious dogma, bearing the weight of colonial laws and state-sanctioned misogyny.