This article addresses the visual ways in which gender violence is represented through the semi-pragmatic analysis of the photo essay by the photojournalist, Gaston Iniguez titled, Siete Vidas. Sobreviviendo a la violencia machista (2018), which portrays the multiple facets and consequences of gender violence through the story of seven women. Methodologically, the images were analyzed regarding the visual representations shaping the images, the decoding-coding clues, the relationship between the linguistic and the visual code and an analysis of both formal and compositional dimensions of the images. The analysis also included an in-depth interview with the author. One of the main results highlights that the visual representations that make up the essay function as metaphors of the known cycle of gender violence and, building up from that, allow us to critically address the issue they represent.