The image I have chosen from Dana Pope’s ‘Not Natasha’ was shot with 35mm. It shows a battered gas cooker, and behind a net curtain their is a young woman holding a baby. The cooker is in focus with the netting, but behind it is all out of focus. The girl and baby are staring at an open door, which just looks like one big rectangle of light, this gives the image good natural lighting. The colors are split down the middle of the photo, the cooker’s side is dirty and dark while the other side is lighter, more softer colouring.

I find it interesting that the girl and baby are further away and unfocussed. I feel that the dirty oven being in focus gives the photo a grim, dark sense about it. There is a sadness present that wouldn’t usually be in an image with a mother and baby, it would usually be happy.

I understand the main theme is escaped women from the sex trafficking industry so this tells me the baby she is holding is a consequence of it. They are free now, they are looking at an open door, but the dirt and the grime will always be memories ‘behind the curtain’.

I know the artist had to build intimate relationships with these girls, and they eventually opened to her, so I feel this makes this photograph more intense.
Sex trafficking in Molodov is as common as 10% of the women being taken against their own will- these photos are only the escaped ones. Some photos from the set show areas where girls that are still missing lived, so Dana Pope is trying to give us the message that this is still going on.

I especially liked this image for it’s half dark/half light composition and one half in focus. It is like a visual metaphor of the story behind the image. They are free in this shot, but the focussed half that is dirty and dim is showing what the truth is, it is portraying the two worlds, but the dark is there first and the clearest.

Amy Cochrane