Ilsa Wynne—Hoelscher
Published by Look Both Ways
$195 AUD + postage
Paperback
220 Pages + 8 Page cover
Limited First Edition of 200, (2026)
DIMENSIONS
Finished: 310mm x 230mm
STOCK, BINDING
Internal: Matte/Uncoated [150GSM]
External: Matte/Coated [400GSM]
Bound by 12 Silver Spirals 32mm Silver Hinge Rings
Published by Look Both Ways
Artist & Editor Ilsa Wynne-Hoelscher
Designer Brigette Cantarella
Written response Yasmine Ganley
Printed in Australia
ISBN 978-0-646-74504-6
PRE-ORDER DELIVERY
September 2026
12 MOONS is the second photobook by photographer Ilsa Wynne—Hoelscher and closes the circle on a photographic project shot between 2017–2020, nine years in the making across conception, research, documentation and considered post-production of the final birth artbook.
12 MOONS unfolds across 12 separate lunar cycles, bringing together 12 encounters with birth. The long-form series brings light to a faded birthing culture in Western civilisation, unmuting and unmasking the primal and natural act of birth.
The project was conceived following Wynne—Hoelscher’s own experience of pregnancy and birth, where she encountered the writings of pioneering American midwife Ina May Gaskin and the now-iconic Spiritual Midwifery. Documenting the revolutionary “Caravan Births” of the early 1970s, Gaskin’s work became a catalyst for a generation of women reclaiming birth as a physiological, communal and deeply human experience. More than fifty years later, 12 MOONS revisits these ideas through an Australian lens, acknowledging both the resurgence of homebirth during the COVID-19 pandemic and an enduring desire to reconnect with embodied knowledge, trust and community.
Although contemporary in its documentation, conceptual in its book design and immersive in its reading experience, the work leans into analogue image-making, nodding to bygone rituals and archival stories while bringing softness and grit to its depiction of these modern events. The camera acts as the eye, allowing film to deliver organic and unaltered states of being human, and of birthing a human. The book design carefully dissects, discovers and zooms in on the extraordinarily ordinary act of birth.
The work prompts a timely cultural question: How did one of humanity’s most universal experiences become one of its least visible?
The book is presented in full-bleed, utilising artful crops, narrative-based image pairing and sequencing to represent the contractions and expansions of the birthing experience. It juxtaposes modern and ancient approaches to birth, combining clinical metal with warm paper stock and grainy imagery. It does not shy away from imperfection or noise, with an aim to observe what is real and what is felt.
Five rotations enable audience engagement with the book, creating an air of chaos and movement with no respite, only space for exhalation. The rotations ensure the book begins and ends in the same position, completing its full circle, while the ring binding allows the viewer to discover their own rhythm and meaning within the pages. In its full form, the book evokes the phases of the moon, cervical dilation and birth’s endless beginnings.
AUDIENCE
Although centred on birth, 12 MOONS is not intended solely for parents or those working within maternity care as a birth tool. It is an artist’s book about what it means to be human. Unbiased and ungendered in its invitation, and universal in its subject, the work seeks to dismantle taboo, foster dialogue and remind audiences of the profound connections that exist between body, community and nature.
The work sets out to make visible what has become culturally invisible, encourage conversation rather than silence, and remind viewers that birth belongs to all of us.
The artist anticipates a general mood of nostalgia with hope prevailing, strengthening our human bonds to one another and with nature in this confused modern world.
AWARDS
Winner of the Stories Award | Australian Photography Awards (2020)
“Ilsa Wynne-Hoelscher’s series spans genres, aesthetics and time scales. Telling a modern tale of an ancient ritual while utilising contemporary storytelling techniques. One can at times sense Ilsa being reflected back in her photographs. Each one of Ilsa’s images could tell its own story of femininity and sisterhood as a stand-alone piece, yet once sequenced together the body of work grants the viewer the ability to start and end at any point of the series to uncover a different narrative. Our committee congratulates Ilsa on creating such an incredible series of images”
[Photo Collective Australia]