‘Not Natasha’ by Dona Popa illustrates a series of women’s experiences of sex-trafficked women from Moldova through photography and collected stories. Natasha is a nickname given to prostitutes with eastern European looks which sex-trafficked girls hate.
The set up of the gallery was done in such a way so that it makes one feel like you’re walking through a tunnel and gives that whole uncomfortable feeling of awkwardness. The image shows the side profile of one blonde haired girl taking in a drag of a cigarette, opposite her there is an out-stretched with proof of self harm all along her arm. Between the two girls there is a blurred shot of what appears to be trees, as if they are both sitting on a long or branch of some sort looking out onto a forest. Under the image read a caption of ‘I was twelve years old. I don’t want to talk about it’. The image is in colour which makes the overall image more intimate which produces an attachment between the viewer and the image, it’s slightly over saturated which makes it almost too real. This image in comparison to the rest stood out to me because I felt like I could relate to it, due to myself being a smoker I could imagine the girl saying those words then taking a huge drag on her cigarette. Another reason why I choose this image is because I almost found some of Popa’s other images rather upsetting, as a collection they are all very strong and knowing that they are expressing the truth has a large factor to why I find them disturbing.
Dana Popa’s image is very clever because she shows intimacy without showing any actual identity. There is no actual work of sex-trafficking, Popa just subtly hints at it. The vulnerability of the girls is emphasized due to the fact that we have the same view as the camera, therefore the power. Some photographers pay their subjects so as to make it equal. When you first look at the image your attention is firstly caught by the girls blonde hair and cigarette but then the longer you look, you can see the other girls self-harm marks on her arm.
Yes, the fragmenting of the bodies protects their identities, it's also a technique which forces us to consider how the women are being treated as objects- the scars are almost like grafitti- the violence of her life is written on her body.
ReplyDeleteHelen