withOUT Violence
The process of creating a photo-ethnography series is one of collaboration with those directly impacted by the theme the photo-ethnography explores. My goal as a photo-ethnographer is to utilize my training in ethnography to document the uniqueness and magnificence of the human experience in everyday life. For me it is a privilege to get to know the women I photograph, and to bear witness to their struggles and strenghts as they share with me their testimonies.
As a photo-ethnographer I am committed to fully respecting the individuals who voluntarily choose to participate in the project. This means that the integrity and dignity of the individual and/or families is always above the artistic pursuit. My mission is to show what is true and authentic. And yet, I find that the outcome is consistently beauty, a beauty that is genuine and unique, however, it has a common thread. Each of these women is unique but they all share not only the desire to live a life withOUT violence but also the courage it takes to make this life a reality.
My role as a photo-ethnographer is just to pay attention, to turn the gaze of the camara to the lives women are choosing and to the hard work and resilience that is often not spotlighted when we as a society are not able to transcend the “issue” in this case, that of domestic violence and sexual assault. I have the great privilege to hold the space for the amazing human beings that are impacted by this “issue,” and in doing so I am also reminded that in reality, no matter how much we may want to distant ourselves from this or another terrible “issue,” the truth is that allowing for these “issues” to plague the societies in which we live eats aways a great deal of our humanity, no matter who we are.
In order to create these photo-ethnographies in a rather short time, I worked closely with Fran Englander who helped me connect with six of the seven women whose lives are represented in these photo-ethnographies. Fran was there to help with the logistics as well as to provide support as as therapist. I also consulted with Fran as I developed the questions and together we decided that it was best to offer a menu of questions and to let participants decide which ones to respond. In being able to choose which questions to respond to, participants decided what they were able to tackle at this point in their journey out of violence and into healing. I wanted to make sure that sharing their stories and deciding to let me photograph them contributed to their healing process. I believe we achieved this goal and I am grateful for that as well.