The Art of Saving a Life - Gates Foundation Vaccination

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Vaccines given to young children over the past 20 years will prevent 732,000 deaths over the course of those children's lifetimes, the CDC reports. However, one in five children today isn't fully vaccinated. That's why the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has identified vaccination as a focal point of its work for 2015. Recently, the foundation commissioned over 30 artists working in literature, music, film, visual art, and photography to create works that reflect vaccination's life-saving role.

Their contributions coalesce in a diverse series called "The Art Of Saving A Life" that the foundation is unveiling online. From original short films to a powerful story from Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the work conveys that immunization is a matter of life and death. In the fight to vaccinate every child, there's no room for complacency — because #vaccineswork.

Ahead, we've gathered 17 visual-art contributions to the project and the Gates Foundation's explanations of each. Click through — they're some of the most visceral arguments for vaccination we've seen.

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