Around one in eight women in the UK will have difficulty conceiving – yet many of us struggle to talk about infertility. Too often, the subject is met with unhelpful breeziness (“It’ll happen as soon as you stop trying!”), judgement (“Well, you did leave it quite late”) or – perhaps worst of all – awkward silence.

However, a new community of artists and photographers is trying to break the silence around infertility by exploring the subject through their work. These artists include Tabitha Moses, who had her daughter via a donor egg after experiencing miscarriage and unsuccessful IVF, and Tina Reid-Peršin, whose photographic and video installation project Photos I’ll Never Take is reminiscent of a family album – with the role of a child played by a doll.

Work by these artists will be on display at this year’s Fertility Fest, the world’s first arts festival dedicated to fertility. Fertility Fest’s founder, Jessica Hepburn – a former Stylist Woman of the Week – was inspired to ask contemporary artists to exhibit at the festival after visiting Frida Kahlo’s Blue House in Mexico City, and being struck by how the groundbreaking feminist artist explored themes of infertility in her work.

Scroll down to learn more about the artists, their experiences and their work.

Meet the artists exploring the invisible struggle of infertility