WINNING ENTRY

Kay Chernush, United States

“With this picture I reverse the voodoo onto my trafficker.I am not afraid anymore.”

This image is part of a series of “re-imagings,” inspired by the narratives of survivors of sex trafficking.  My process is aimed at deconstructing and transforming their victimhood while exploring issues of self-image, perceived image and projected image. The work is intended to explode the anecdotal into the universal, as in this work, which is about Courage and Hope.  Transforming the particular individual experience in a larger context empowers the woman, enabling her to see herself differently. Likewise, the tension created between the formal beauty of the image and the horror of what is being depicted is designed to throw the viewers off balance, causing them to reconsider their basic assumptions and attitudes toward commercial sex and coercion, exploitation and powerlessness.

Semi-Finalists

Sha Najak, Singapore

“Waxing Lyrical”

The agency of a woman, her personhood, her identity and her interests. Her words are drawn from her internal agency, filled with humanist experiences. Her connection to her environment nurtures her mind, her heart and her actions. Intuitive power, the path of the goddess, the growth of spirit. The rights of her freedom, her right to expression, her right to feel, her right to be.

Lisa Rakha Goldstein, United States

The goal of my picture is to show that women have the ability to assert agency, in subtle and tacit forms.My picture represents a foreign domestic worker from Thailand who migrated into the United States. The woman in the picture, Somjit Ruanthong, cannot read or write in English. This past year, the United States Government issued a census in which everyone, despite their citizenship status (legal or illegal immigrants, visa holders, citizens, etc.) will submit. In order for every member of society to participate, the United States Government provided the census in over 50 languages. Somjit participated in the census by using the Thai form.The photograph was taken in black and white to represent the gray area in which foreign domestic workers fall into. In Thailand, Burmese migrant domestic workers fall into a gray area of classification. Whether they are registered or unregistered migrant workers, the Thai Government should recognize them as human beings, and should guarantee them the capacity of basic rights within the workplace.The watermark of Somjit smiling shows her happiness in recognizing that she has agency. Often, the lack of recognition of foreign domestic workers results in the symbolic erasure of the person. The watermark represents the resurrection of her spirit.

Huma Zainab Nayani, Pakistan

“The True Essence of Strength cannot always be Visualized”

Women across the subcontinent are exposed to nature’s endowment and wilderness. Women of Pakistan, even though in an isolated environment manage to contribute to the economics in a way which is undermined in the bigger picture. It goes to say here that the strength of a woman runs parallel to might of Mother Earth: “The true essence of strength cannot be visualized”

Other Submissions

Aly Mgady Hazzaa, Egypt

"Moving”

I don’t see women in my country do things like riding bikes. This image shows courage and independency.

Zoë Bake-Paterson, New Zealand

“A Time of Women”

Too often I have heard that we, women, are moving and migrating because of outside pressures such as poverty, husbands, or desperation rather than for personal reasons such as work, experience, higher pay or change. Regardless of the reason migration occurs, there seems to be no recognition of the decisions women are making or the acts we are taking to migrate. I wanted to create something to shake off this stereotype of the ‘static’ role women are said to play in migration. I wanted to see something vibrant, and this led to “A Time of Women”.

This painting aims to capture some of the movements of women while keeping in mind our individualities. I love the idea of getting into a boat and simply paddling into the sunset. While life is never that easy or that simple, there is power in the image of two sisters or comrades sharing their strength and energy to travel where they want to go, for whatever the reason.

“When we as women offer our experience as truth, as human truth, all the maps change.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

Hannah Epstein, Canada

When women are abused or exploited, society seems to pussy-foot around the issue, and will backlash against women if they react in an angry or aggressive manner to express the hurt they’ve experienced, compounding the damage. “Revolt of the Blow-Up Dolls” blatantly calls out how it is trafficked women are being viewed and used by their abusers, and fiercely calls an end to the crimes. A warning to all who condone attacks on women by refusing to intervene.

Larysa Melnyk Dyrszka, United States

The painting depicts every woman.  She can be from any continent, of any class, and she is worthy and regal. Every woman is strong and powerful.

Sarah Stengle, United States

"Trafficking should not Remain in the Dark”

Trafficking should not remain in the dark is an eight page glass book made with thick plate glass and steel hinges.  Translucent images of gridded windows seen from the interior, with light coming through, are on each page. At the base of each page the message "trafficking should not remain in the dark" is sandblasted into the glass. There are other short messages encouraging bravery and activism on each page, such as "Speak for those in fear" and "Those in fear, speak". One section lists the names of all the countries in the world to show that it is a global problem.

Meg Hamilton, United States

This photograph is one from a series created in a collaborative effort between myself and the residents of the Princess Home, a women’s safe house in Kathmandu, Nepal. The contrast between my photographs (in black and white) and those of the residents of Princess Home (in color) speak powerfully to the differences in the perspective of an outsider and those living in the cultural dynamics of being a Nepali woman. Together, the images ask one to consider the power of those within a culture to create change and to offer strength, resiliency, and beauty to circumstances often clouded in heaviness. In this image, the black and white photograph shows bags of dirt outside of an empty building in Nepal. It was one woman’s job to fill these bags with the rubble from the crumbling building and to remove the bags from the property. This, I learned, is one of the only jobs available to women. The color image was taken by a woman in the safe house, who used her camera to play with shadow, light, and color. In this photograph, her spirit and creativity infuse the image with hope and strength.