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I think a part of me was shying away from that intimacy because I would have to address my own related experiences. In the end I had emergency surgery that resulted in the loss of my right ovary and fallopian tube and they drained five litres of fluid from the cyst. I married in the 1970s and got a divorce on the basis of non-consummation: on our wedding night my husband said he had a headache.

I feel like I’ve been a creative warrior for women, helping them reclaim their bodies and their stories – and I’m fiercely protective of them. A lot of healing has come about through having many pleasurable, gentle experiences at the hands of other women. The really big deal was finding out that if I waited too long, I would be unlikely to conceive naturally, if at all.After meeting someone who essentially grew up on the carnival grounds I thought I should take a look at the life of the showgirls in the carnival. I’d be talking to someone whose story I thought was about their wonderful sex life or a health condition, and they’d open up about being raped or an experience in childhood of grooming. I watched a documentary that talked about porn stars who were having operations to make their labia smaller. My life journey has been about finding balance within myself – and that’s where I’m finding my healing.

And when 100 women share intimate photos and deeply personal experiences relating to their vaginas, the result is a tender yet taboo-exploding message of women reclaiming their womanhood. I went to see a marriage guidance counsellor and she said unhelpful things like, ‘Perhaps you ought to wear a sexy black nightdress’.When I masturbated when I was younger, I used to hate it when my clitoris got bigger – I thought it looked like a penis. But there’s a world of difference between how you see vulvas in porn – and how you see them in real life. Now, her latest work puts vulvas and vaginas in the spotlight thanks to her new book Womanhood: The Bare Reality and forthcoming Channel 4 documentary: 100 Vaginas. Circus folks, whom I have interviewed extensively, are quick to point out the differences between them and carnival folk or more derogatory “carneys.

Shortly after, I came across a PDF health leaflet that disrespectfully referred to the vagina as ‘a front hole’. In reality, my labia were probably quite small pieces of skin, but to me they felt like big elephant ears. It was through my involvement with the women’s movement in the 1970s that l found my voice and the strength to confront patriarchy.My sexual preference is polysexual, which means that I am attracted to different genders, though not necessarily all. Later, a BBC report about girls as young as nine seeking labiaplasty – surgery that involves the lips of the vagina being shortened or reshaped – because they were distressed by its appearance, had Laura reaching for her camera again.

Whether it’s power, pleasure, impassiveness or pain, each woman’s relationship with her vulva is completely individual. and I found myself explaining what different parts of them are and telling them that’s everyone’s different. Because if you find yourself feeling admiration, pride and inspiration for another person, it becomes easier to apply that to yourself, too. The correct language and understanding of female genitalia is so important to me: the vulva is the whole external package, the vagina is a muscular tube which leads from the cervix (the neck of the womb) down to the vulva. Ultimately I want to live in a world where we are people and not defined by what’s between our legs.

I first met Laura, a photographer from Surrey, in 2015 following her exploration of 100 women’s relationships with their breasts.