Karen Toro

Freelance photographer

www.karentoro.com/

IWMF 2021

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Location: Quito, Ecuador

Nationality: Ecuadorian

Biography: Quito, 1990. My work in the artistic and photographic field is related to issues of human rights, migration, education and gender. My labour is based on the belief in the social importance of photography as a way to relate, make visible and... MORE

June 3, 2017, Buenos Aires, Arg... Mayo with a flare in her hand.

June 3, 2017, Buenos Aires, Argentina. June 3 has become a historic date in Argentina, the massive mobilization "Ni una menos" (Not one less) brings together thousands of women marching against feminicidal violence and for the rights of women, children and LGBTIQ+ people. A young woman celebrates the end of the mobilization in the historic Plaza de Mayo with a flare in her hand.

December 5, 2018, Buenos Aires,...acute;rez's photograph.

December 5, 2018, Buenos Aires, Argentina. National women's strike in Argentina organized after the indignation provoked because two years after the femicide of Lucía Pérez the judges Pablo Viñas, Juan Gómez Urso and Aldo Carnevale decided to acquit the three accused of the crime. Women from different social and feminist organizations support the mobilization while holding posters with the Lucía Pérez's photograph.

June 13, 2018, Buenos Aires, Ar...igil while the vote took place.

June 13, 2018, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Historic day in the fight for women's rights in Argentina, for the first time the Congress of the Nation approved the half sanction to give way to the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy. Nearly two million people gathered around the congress to hold a vigil while the vote took place.

September 23, 2019, Playa de Or...al patron saint for three days.

September 23, 2019, Playa de Oro Community, Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador. Singer women and teenagers place offerings in the festivities of the Virgen de la Merced. Among processions, parades, drums, lullabies and salsa, the people of this Afro-descendant community celebrate the local patron saint for three days.

October 3, 2019, Quito, Ecuador...ounded, and eleven people dead.

October 3, 2019, Quito, Ecuador.An Ecuadorian flag lies bloody on the ground after the first day of mobilizations of what would be an eleven consecutive day National Strike. From the first day, the government repressed the crowds with excessive force that left thousands of people arrested and wounded, and eleven people dead.

October 8, 2019, Quito, Ecuador...ounded, and eleven people dead.

October 8, 2019, Quito, Ecuador. A young man runs to avoid being hit by tear gas bombs thrown by riot police on the sixth day of mobilizations of the National Strike. From the first day, the government repressed the crowds with excessive force that left thousands of people arrested and wounded, and eleven people dead.

October 9, 2019, Quito, Ecuador...o attend emergencies for hours.

October 9, 2019, Quito, Ecuador. Several rescuers from private organizations self-organized to attend emergencies during the mobilizations of the National Strike since after the violent confrontations of the police with the civil population the Red Cross decided not to go out to attend emergencies for hours.

October 9, 2019, Quito, Ecuador...minutes after the curfew began.

October 9, 2019, Quito, Ecuador. Self-organized citizens prepared a thousand meals to take to the indigenous people who came to the capital to join the strike. Humanitarian aid, food and shelter, did not stop arriving despite the repression that was experienced around the collection centers a few minutes after the curfew began.

October 12, 2019, Quito, Ecuado...nce that caused several deaths.

October 12, 2019, Quito, Ecuador. Blanca Chancoso, historic indigenous leader speaks to her companions. On the tenth day of the National Strike, on the 527th anniversary of the arrival of the Spaniards in America, indigenous women and women from various organizations called for a march to demand the repeal of Decree 883, the exit of the IMF from Ecuador and the cessation of police violence that caused several deaths.

October 13, 2019, Quito, Ecuado...l Decree 883 ending the strike.

October 13, 2019, Quito, Ecuador. Eleventh day of mobilizations during the National Strike, a graffiti with the popular phrase "unite people" is seen under the famous mural "For our children until life" by artist Pavel Egüez. Around midnight the government of Lenin Moreno repealed the controversial Decree 883 ending the strike.

March 7, 2021, Quito, Ecuador. ...f Quito to demand their rights.

March 7, 2021, Quito, Ecuador. One of the members of the feminist dance group Zorroras Twerk, dances at the front of the march for International Women's Day. Despite the pandemic, thousands of women gathered in the streets of Quito to demand their rights.

April 28, 2021, Quito, Ecuador....ear become pregnant after rape.

April 28, 2021, Quito, Ecuador. A young woman holds a sign that reads "Decidir es mi derecho" (Deciding is my right), behind her are police and anti-rights groups called "provida" (pro-life). On this historic day for Ecuador, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling that decriminalizes abortion in cases of rape for any woman or girl. In Ecuador more than 2000 girls a year become pregnant after rape.

Private Story

IWMF 2021

Copyright Karen Toro 2024

Updated May 2021

Location Quito, Ecuador

Topics Abortion, Capitalism, Celebrations, Documentary, Editorial, Essays, Feminism, Gender, Latin America, Pandemics, Photography, Photojournalism, Protests, Womens Rights

My work is based on the belief in the social importance of photography as a way to relate, make visible and support the work of historically vulnerable movements, so my work aims to build a dignified, empathetic and respectful look towards various groups such as peasants, indigenous people, women, educators, people in human mobility, environmental groups, LGBTIQ+, defenders of territories, and others.

My work is framed in a context of total job insecurity and lack of guarantees (physical, health and freedom of expression) to the work of journalists, especially if we are women. In Ecuador, those of us who work independently find it very difficult to cover a minimum monthly salary, so we do not have social and health security. Our work is constantly questioned and we are harassed or have experienced censorship.

The photographs presented are a small sample of my work in which I record and accompany the struggles of groups whose rights are constantly violated, one of my objectives is to contribute with representations that do not stigmatize them but show them with dignity and exalt their work. Women organizing to achieve the right to decide over their bodies, mothers demanding justice against femicides, indigenous movements politically structured against measures that affect their territories, Afro-descendant communities sustaining their ancestral practices; this is some of what I have documented with the aim of supporting these movements.

For me images are one of the ways in which we generate knowledge, that is why I use photography as a tool to approach the world and question hegemonic and stigmatizing representations. With the example of the values represented by Anja Niedringhaus' work, I decided that my work shows a position in front of the world, I am aware that the narratives we consume are usually created from places of power and privilege, so I constantly analyze what circulates in the media, in that sense my contribution aims to propose a dignified, empathetic and respectful look towards the people and subjects I photograph, to propose a photography where we can feel truly represented and identified, without prejudice and away from stereotypes.We live in a mainly visual society, for this reason I believe in the power of the image to invite debate, we are seeing it in these days of social upheaval in Latin America, the work of photojournalists and women is extremely important at the time of reporting the abuses of power, to jump the media fences and censorship of some states.