Final Major Project
This is a project which is based on domestic abuse. It does not have to be a physical act of violence, it can also be psychological, sexual, financial and emotional.
“Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me”
I imagine that you may have heard of this saying at some point. Actually, in this sense it is not exactly true, the outer scars heal whereas the inner ones stay for a lifetime. I am the girl next door who was a victim of domestic abuse, now a survivor. You may be asking why I chose to do this? Well, I wanted to create images from my own journey and events in my life that gives a true account of what happened to me so that I may help others. My images may not be what you may expect however it is not what is on the surface or in the case of the images the subject matter itself. It is how a person interprets the images for themselves. One person’s interpretation will be completely different to that of another. I just hope that whoever and wherever you are, you know you are never alone. There will always be someone who can help. If I have given you hope in a world of impossibilities then I will have done more than I ever imagined.
Research Document
“ One night, he battered me severely almost blinding me”
Captured by Nan Golding in 1984, we can see a self portrait of herself one month after being the victim of a physically assault by her then-lover in a Berlin Hotel. The event gives a true and honest reflection of her experience. Taken at her request by Suzanne Fletcher, we note it reveals bruising on the facial area along with blood shot eye. The lipstick was bright red, a similar colour to make the eye. When we think of this colour, generally it is used as a warning or to stop in the highway code on a set of traffic lights. Golding found a way such as using colours, taboo subjects to open the door to the public into a world which remained closed.
My research allowed me to consider not only Nan Goldings work but also work by Donna Ferrato, again an American photographer
In 1981 on an assignment for a magazine, she experienced an act of domestic violence where a man hit his wife. She felt driven and obsessed to try and capture images of this and during the 1980s and 1990s, would visit womens shelters, prisons and houses of different economic class. Ferrato, would also obtain first hand accounts from her interviews and other reporters who also worked on similar stories. They would include battered women, violent men and activists.
Producing a piece of work, namely
She would ask people to contemplate the following statement by her
“There are countless women in prison whose sole crime was to protect themselves and their children from murderous husbands or boyfriends”
https://www.donnaferrato.com/personal-work
Unlike Golding and Ferrato, a Scottish photographer Laura Dodsworth would produce images for a campaign where she was commissioned by Scottish Women’s Aid promoting zero tolerance against this subject.
This is the opening statement on her page.
https://www.lauradodsworth.com/one-thousand-words
The images in this body of work looked very posed using models, not real life situations. I do not feel these have as much impact as the other work by Golding and Ferrato. My thought would be that this photographer was given a brief and fit it to the way she was asked too. It does not look a powerful enough group of images to suggest the severity of the subject.
Each of the photographers I researched had their own unique style with a story behind it of a documentary real life situation. It is unclear whether Ferrato or Dodsworth had experienced this first hand like Golding. The message within the each body of the work is the same, bringing that domestic abuse must stop and come to an end.