Look at Me, I Am Beautiful — A Different Vision of Peace
Alfred Fried Photography Award 2015 - World's Best Picture on the Theme of Peace
What does peace look like for women and children who have experienced some of the most devastating consequences of war?
In Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, years of conflict have left countless women and children affected by sexual violence, displacement and discrimination. For survivors, the consequences of violence often extend far beyond the events themselves, shaping their relationships with their communities and their opportunities for the future.
In August 2014, I created Look at Me, I Am Beautiful, a photographic series developed in support of HOLD DRC, a local organisation working with survivors of sexual violence and children born as a result of rape.
Rather than documenting suffering through conventional humanitarian imagery, I wanted to explore a different way of representing these women and children.
What if, instead of photographing what violence had taken away from them, we imagined the lives, opportunities and happiness they deserved?
The series follows the imagined life of Esther, a little girl born of rape, through the milestones of a lifetime: childhood, her first steps, education, marriage and motherhood.
Surrounded by women and men who support and protect her, Esther grows up in a world where violence does not determine her future.
The photographs are deliberately staged, colourful and theatrical. The participants wear festive clothes, smile and take part in scenes that sometimes resemble a fairy tale.
This contrast is intentional.
Behind the apparent joy of the images are real experiences of sexual violence. The women participating in the project are survivors, and the children were born as a result of rape.
By involving them in constructing these imagined scenes, I wanted to create images that would challenge the way survivors are so often represented: not through helplessness or victimhood, but through their individuality, aspirations and right to happiness.
The images do not portray the reality these women and children have experienced. They portray a reality they should have the right to experience.
Recognition at Alfred Fried Photography Award 2015
In September 2015, Look at Me, I Am Beautiful received the Alfred Fried Photography Award for the World's Best Picture on the Theme of Peace, presented at the Austrian Parliament in Vienna.
The international jury recognised the series for its unconventional interpretation of peace and its deliberate use of staging, colour and visual provocation.
In its statement, the jury described how the apparent idyll of the photographs conceals the painful realities behind them. What initially appears theatrical or even excessively cheerful gradually reveals a deeper message about the dignity and aspirations of survivors.
The jury interpreted the series as an African fairy tale in which violence gives way to protection, and the possibility of a different future takes centre stage.
Beyond the award, the recognition was particularly meaningful because it brought international attention to the women and children involved in the project, and to the work of HOLD DRC.
For me, peace is not simply the absence of war. It is also the possibility of living with dignity, safety, respect and the freedom to imagine a future beyond violence.
PRESS
International Press Institute