Winners of the Alfred Fried Photography Award 2015
Look at Me, I am Beautiful.
Everywhere in the world, women are vulnerable from a very young age. They struggle to put an end to domestic abuse, they fight for their rights, for equality, for justice and for freedom from violence.
For years, the city of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, witnessed horrific war crimes and sexual violence used as a weapon of war against children and women and perhaps even men. In recent years, more and more local initiatives and international programmes have been developed to help survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence during war to reintegrate society and take back control of their lives.
In this series of pictures you discover the life of Esther, a little girl born of rape, going through all the big milestones of her life: her birth, her first steps, her first day at school, her wedding, her first day as a mother, etc. Esther is surrounded by men who support her and protect her.
Freedom from violence.
All the children you see in the pictures are born of rape…all the women have been involved in sexual abuse. But they are victims no more! They are survivors, beautiful survivors, who want the world to look at them as such!
This work was produced in August 2014 to promote peace and to support the work a local NGO (HOLD DRC) who empowers children born of rape and women survivors of sexual violence! Jury statement: The reality of peace is the result of power, repression, intolerance, violence, death and destruction, the result of sententious words, hypocritically declared intentions, bilateral laws, glib agreements and declarations of peace often followed by diametrically opposed actions. Insofar Patricia Willocq’s strangely irritating series comes across as staged and kitschy. But wait! Willocq deliberately banks on irritation, on provocation. All women are wearing colourful festive clothes, they are cheerful and smile. But it is precisely this brash idyll that reveals the false bottom: all the women in the pictures of the Belgium-based photographer are victims of rape. Her exaggerated staging returns self-worth and dignity to these women. The series is like an African fairy tale, in which tormentors become protectors, good wins over bad. An analogy for the good life, with a right to childhood, schools, a profession, family, self-realization. Not a melancholy but a fierce humanitarian statement that peace is mainly about tolerance, respect and appreciation.
Everywhere in the world, women are vulnerable from a very young age. They struggle to put an end to domestic abuse, they fight for their rights, for equality, for justice and for freedom from violence.
For years, the city of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, witnessed horrific war crimes and sexual violence used as a weapon of war against children and women and perhaps even men. In recent years, more and more local initiatives and international programmes have been developed to help survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence during war to reintegrate society and take back control of their lives.
In this series of pictures you discover the life of Esther, a little girl born of rape, going through all the big milestones of her life: her birth, her first steps, her first day at school, her wedding, her first day as a mother, etc. Esther is surrounded by men who support her and protect her.
Freedom from violence.
All the children you see in the pictures are born of rape…all the women have been involved in sexual abuse. But they are victims no more! They are survivors, beautiful survivors, who want the world to look at them as such!
This work was produced in August 2014 to promote peace and to support the work a local NGO (HOLD DRC) who empowers children born of rape and women survivors of sexual violence! Jury statement: The reality of peace is the result of power, repression, intolerance, violence, death and destruction, the result of sententious words, hypocritically declared intentions, bilateral laws, glib agreements and declarations of peace often followed by diametrically opposed actions. Insofar Patricia Willocq’s strangely irritating series comes across as staged and kitschy. But wait! Willocq deliberately banks on irritation, on provocation. All women are wearing colourful festive clothes, they are cheerful and smile. But it is precisely this brash idyll that reveals the false bottom: all the women in the pictures of the Belgium-based photographer are victims of rape. Her exaggerated staging returns self-worth and dignity to these women. The series is like an African fairy tale, in which tormentors become protectors, good wins over bad. An analogy for the good life, with a right to childhood, schools, a profession, family, self-realization. Not a melancholy but a fierce humanitarian statement that peace is mainly about tolerance, respect and appreciation.
