“Glimpses of Broken Silence” "Silenzi Interrotti"

A Photo Essay of Women’s Experiences of Domestic Violence in Sicily” portraits of emotions through handwritings on paper to describe feelings, giving voice to the victims. The project was meant to produce a photo essay providing visual glimpses of the contrasting emotions of women victims of domestic violence. Employing a participatory approach, women victims become actors in telling their story and in choosing evocative images to represent it in a way that builds their confidence and self-esteem. Avoiding the typical portray of beaten faces and violent acts and being careful to protect the anonymity of the victims, the method chosen is to build a visual narrative that evoke rather than document the whole experience of the participating women while providing them an opportunity to elaborate their experience from being abused to the awareness of one’s integrity, the decision to seek help, the healing process and to the kind of “redemption from the victim’s condition”.