For ten years beginning in 2004, I collaborated with Anne Ream on a project we call The Voices and Faces Project. Anne was the writer, and I was the photographer. Both survivors of rape, we set out to interview sexual assault survivors about what they experienced in the aftermath. Our goal was to show that women and men of all ages, races and circumstances find ways to get through the trauma and lead productive lives. In the course of the project, we traveled across the United States, visited Mexico and Canada, and in 2014 were invited to South Africa to do a similar project in Durban.
Into the Light Project
"Into the Light" is an artist's book that includes thirty black-and-white portraits from this body of work. It can easily be converted into an exhibit. The photos are printed on ten strips of photo rag paper--three photos plus some text on each--to make an accordion fold book that lays into a custom made box. When exhibited the ten strips will hang on the wall, stretching 4' vertically and 13' horizontally to form a large rectangle. Hahnemuehle Photo donated the initial paper for the project.
Exhibition Mock-Up
My aim is to escape from the conventions for presenting portraits, matted and under glass, in order to create a space in which the viewer feels the proximity of sexual assault, while contemplating the range and diversity of the women and men who have survived it. The portraits are complemented by an essay written by Jamie Kalven, the author of "Working With Available Light: a Family's World After Violence" (W.W.Norton, 1998).
I have made three boxes. Two are available for exhibition. Through the Voices and Faces Project we have connected to a network of organizations dedicated to preventing sexual violence, providing services to victims and raising visibility of sexual violence on campus and in the military. I will make the exhibit available through that network and to other interested organizations.
Into the Light Box
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Meeting and photographing these survivors has been a privilege. My hope is that this exhibit will prompt necessary conversations. Please consider supporting this project with a donation. The money will be used to subsidize the outreach and expenses associated with circulating the exhibit.