Brent Stirton

“Together we fight 
for those 
who can no longer fight for themselves.“

Brent Stirton

Brent Stirton, one of the most important and most awarded photographers of our time – his work has been honoured with 14 World Press Photo Awards – is known for his deeply moving work on humanitarian crises, environmental disasters and devastating diseases. In August 2020, he was commissioned by the WE&ME Foundation of Gabriele and Gerhard Ströck and in collaboration with the photo festival in Baden to portray ten people suffering from ME/CFS in Austria, alongside a further 80,000 others.

With his unrivalled eye for human destinies, he has captured the profound challenges and silent tragedy that shape the lives of those affected in poignant images. His photographs are a powerful testament to the way this poorly understood disease dominates the lives of sufferers and their families. Each image not only tells the story of individual suffering, but also gives a voice to those who often live in isolation, a voice that must be heard. Stirtons series helps to raise awareness of ME/CFS and to bring the invisible suffering of many people into the light of day.

This unusual initiative by the Ströck family – themselves affected by the fate of two of their sons – and Brent Stirtons’ photographs and their publication in all major Austrian media outlets, as well as an ORF documentary that resulted from them, has significantly accelerated the momentum with which the public and ultimately Austrian health policy react to the urgency of ME/CFS. ‘We are committed to advocacy, education and research with a sense of urgency to ensure that every person with ME/CFS receives the compassionate and effective care, support and ultimately a cure that they deserve,’ is how the Ströck family describes their mission.