From the inside of a woman’s fridge to the outside of her house, a new exhibition of photography by Magda Segal provides a compelling insight into women’s lives today. The photographs, which are currently on show in Southampton City Art Gallery and transfer to the Wellcome Institute in London in late June, are part of a collaborative project based on the Southampton Women’s Survey, a unique survey of the health of young women, and the influence of diet and lifestyle on their babies.

In conjunction with the Survey, which began in 1998, Segal was commissioned to take photographs of everyday lives of some of the women taking part. The current exhibition focuses on 12 of those women, providing a series of images that are both intimate and universal.

“I hope that my photographs give colour to the statistics from the scientific survey. People often think their lives are dull, but in reality they are varied and full of fascinating detail”

Magdal Segal

The Southampton Women’s Survey is one of the largest and most significant focused research surveys ever to be undertaken. Based at the University of Southampton, it involves all women in Southampton aged between 20 and 34 (about 20,000 women). The aim of the survey is to provide the first real information on the ways in which a mother’s size, health and diet before and during pregnancy affects her baby’s size and development in the womb, and its health in later life.

Magda Segal’s photographs give the scientists new insight into behaviour and social influences which affect women’s diets and health. They also provide a moving visual documentation of the real lives of women today.