Her work denounces the situation of women and children victims of gender-based violence. It has many points in common with other photojournalists such as April Saul, Mary Ellen Mark, or Lynn Johnson, since they treat "awkward" topics related to childhood or women. For example, the water carriers in Africa, childhood cancer, or the death of minors due to firearms in the United States, among others.
Ressenya
Donna Ferrato is a photographer focused on documenting violence against women. She has worked as a photojournalist on swingers' clubs, group weddings, and other forms of sexuality and affection which are not normative, as well as on brothels, prostitutes, detention of abusers in situ, and battered mothers that have fled with their children. She has told their stories with no nice filters so that they do not remain hidden and make society aware of that problem.
Justificacions
She is a women's rights activist that documents violence against women in all its forms, from the apparently glamorous and modern sexual liberation, to partner abuse.
Her career is very prolific and her work is of great quality.
Biografia
Ferrato grew up in Lorain, Ohio, where she graduated too in 1968. In 1922, she got the recognition of Laurel School’s Distinguished Alumna. Subsequently, she studied in Boston, where she met her husband, Mark Webb.
In 1971, she moved to San Francisco where she worked as a judicial law clerk. In 1975 she divorced and began taking photos and hitch-hiking around the United States, working on what she could. She studied photography in the Art Institute of California, in San Francisco. Afterwards, she travelled to Europe, where she continued hitch-hiking and taking photos.
In 1979, she moved to New York and devoted herself to clubs, where she began taking pictures in clubs, both sex-themed and discotheques, and documenting the nightclub culture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. She started visiting swingers' clubs and ended up doing an assignment for Japanese Playboy about a very important couple in this environment, Garth and Lisa. She moved with them in their mansion, where she documented both orgies and typical family moments. Gradually, she realised that Garth was not what he seemed to be, and one night, she witnessed and photographed him physically assaulting Lisa. From then on, she turned her career and decided to capture and share what goes on in the privacy of the home so that everyone can see the harsh reality.
From this moment on, Ferrato has dedicated herself to photographing gender-based violence in all its facets, sharing a house with battered women, going in police cars to emergency calls and sleeping in shelters for victims. In 1991, she published Living with the Enemy, which, together with talks and exhibitions around the country, is a warning call and starts a national debate on sexual violence and women's rights. In 2011, she launched the campaign I Am Unbeatable. It is a website with stories, photographs and videos whose main characters are women who have survived abuse and tell their stories to help other women to get ahead and make society aware.
She has taken part in more than 500 exhibitions around the world, and she has won numerous awards, such as thr Robert F Kennedy Award for Humanistic Photography, IWMF Courage in Journalism Award, and the Missouri Honor Medal. She continues working, by doing different works, among them a series of documentary photographs of her district, Tribeca, where she portrays the typical lifestyle of that place.
- Gosling, Emily (2021): Donna Ferrato's images of 'battered women, activists, migrant workers, and more' are a call-to-action for women, Creative Boom, Creative Boom Ltd., <https://www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/donna-ferrato/> (25/01/2022).
English: from articles like the one of The Guardian, in the bibliography section, think if people informing about a conflict should intervene in particular situations. She can also be studied as regards her professional life or information on her website, since everything is in English.
She can also be used for Citizenship, to reflect on human rights, women's rights, and gender-based violence, and how the consideration it has on society and on legislation has evolved.
Documents
Instruccions per fer cerques
Women's Legacy et permet trobar allò que estàs buscant. T'expliquem a continuació com fer-ho.
Cerca a tots els camps de text: El que escriviu en aquest camp es cercarà en tots els camps de text, en totes les categories. Pots escriure una única paraula, o cercar una frase completa si l'escrius entre cometes. També et permet encadenar diferents paraules utilitzant AND o OR, per exemple pots buscar "família aristocràtica" AND "poeta" i els resultats hauran de contenir les dues paraules o "família aristocràtica" OR "poeta" i aleshores que en continguin una, ja sortiran a la llista de resultats.
Cerca per jerarquies: Trobaràs diferents jerarquies que podràs desplegar prement sobre elles, podràs seleccionar el nivell o nivells de la jerarquia que vulguis, els elements seleccionats es buscaran utilitzant un criteri OR, és a dir, que compleixin un ja sortirà a la llista de resultats.
Cerca per textos: Trobaràs diferents camps de text que apliquen a les diferents categories, les regles d'ús són les mateixes que s'utilitzen al punt 1, però en aquest cas estàs buscant en un camp en concret, no a tots alhora, és a dir, per exemple, pots buscar "família aristòcrata russa", només al camp Biografia d'un personatge.
Unió dels filtres de selecció: També a la part superior trobaràs un selector on establiràs el criteri d'ordenació de la sortida.
