How is Domestic Abuse portrayed to us in the media?
Introduction
For my personal investigation I wanted to investigate the
representation of domestic abuse. Last year in my AS project I explored perfect
relationships by representing metaphoric relationship with the title ‘Tea for
two’ these consist of a series of image which were photoshoped by adjusting my
subject’s size. However for this project I wanted to explore the darker aspects
of relationship, and what could cause a relationship to go down a dark path.
Through my investigations, I discovered ‘Domestic abuse’ an issue which we a society
are starting to recognise a lot more. I have looked at various photographers
and artist who have explored these issues such as Sarah Naomi Lewkowicz a
photographer who has inspired me in my work. She has also explored domestic
abuse from the angle of a victim, which was something I felt would tug on the
audiences heart strings, possibly making them more aware of domestic abuse from
a victims point of view. How the perpetrator can manipulate a victim
emotionally and these symptoms may not be as easy to recognise as physical
abuse may be. I wanted to investigate how other artist and photographer had
approached this topic but more importantly how the media represent domestic
violence as whole. I wanted to approach this topic in a true and honest way by
taking a realistic approach.
Representation
Domestic abuse is represented
in various ways in the media. For example there are commercial representations
such as stereo typically a woman being beaten up by a man, with her face covered
in cuts and bruises. These campaigns are often exaggerated and consist of a
strong vibrant lighting on their victims. In these commercials the models
appear to have fairly visible bruises and scars, this is an approach which is
designed to evoke the viewer’s emotion and help them understand the results of
domestic violence by exaggerating the effects of it. There are representations
of domestic abuse being hidden and only evident in the household, for example
victims being restricted from leaving the house or controlling their boyfriends
who want to check their girlfriend’s phones. Which gives an insight into the
reality of domestic abuse that the abuse is not always visible and we may often
miss the signs, this could be seen as a true representation. Various
photographers have explored domestic abuse in various ways for example Nan
Goldin is a photographer who approached domestic abuse in an explicit way and a
very true way , as she photographed herself after her husband had beat her up.
This shocked the audience, as this was a real life case of victim it wasn’t a
stage photograph but a real photograph. She was her own model and as a result
she did not fabricate any images but shows exactly what had happened. It was a
brave and striking thing to do as she would have photographed herself after she
had been beaten up.
Domestic abuse can affect
anyone of any age, size, shape and sexuality. It
can occur with in both genders. When a man is a victim of domestic abuse it is
seen to be a taboo topic. People generally do not take this serious as a result
in some cases of men being physical bigger. It does not seem to be physically possibly
however these cases occur more frequently that we expect. This is something the
media does not tend to explore as much. Statics reveal that ‘40% of
victims are men’. We are unaware the percentage
could be so high, could this be as a result of the media? This could be as a
result of the media not displaying as much awareness for male victims.
Physical
Abuse
These would be examples of
victims being physically being abused such as slapping, punching, kicking,
biting etc. This is a form, which commonly recognised by the general public and
represented by the media. Victims tend to try and hide away by using make up
and covering the bruises through clothing. However photographers such as Nan
Goldin tend challenge the perception of this issue and instead displays her bruises
explicitly. This type of abuse can occur in all perpetrators.
Emotional
Abuse
The abuser targets the victim
physiologically, by making them feel guilty for things which are not their
fault. They tend to gradually knock down self-esteem down and making them feel
worthless. This type of abuse would generally be hard to represent through the
use of photography. Displaying the emotions on the models faces could be
misjudges and interpreted in another way.
Verbal
abuse
This type of abuse is closely
connected with emotional abuse, verbal abuse can lead to emotional abuse and
vice versa. This would consist of angry outburst and hurtful words being thrown
at the victim. A domestic abuse victim states “Verbal abuse is more painful, as
it affect you mentally, the bruises faded after time, yet the words still
remain in your head” this expressed the long term affects it can have one.
Sexual
Abuse
This would be the sexual
encounter where the other person does not want to participate in any activity.
This may be one of the more uncomfortable abuses which the media, takes a back
seat on as a result of its disturbing nature. It is a sensitive issue, the
media would have need to approach it tactically because of its nature.
Financial
Abuse
Taking control of the victim’s
money, stealing their money and even controlling their money. This is closely
linked to emotional abuse as the abuser tends manipulate the victim into giving
them their money. The victim then ends up with no money and feel as though the
abuser has the right to keep and use the money that they have. This is common
in relationships between lovers.
Practical
work
In my practical work I wanted
explore the hidden aspect of domestic abuse. The idea that people from an
outside party may often miss the signs of domestic abusive relationship. Often
we are unaware of what happens in other people’s households and they tend to
try and keep these issue behind closed doors. I wanted to approach the hidden
signs of my investigations by studying body language and the positions, which
my models would be placed in when staging my photographs. In order for me to
understand my victims I had to study and read various case studies about
victims of Domestic Violence in order to draw a reliable view point and
inspiration into my own work. In order to recreate various scenes, I have also
watched the body language of various victims and tried to include that into my
work. I wanted to understand the thought process for victims and how they felt
at various moments. It helped me as an audience to understand why victims stay
for so long and why exactly they feel trapped in relationships. In many case
studies I started to draw a repetitive pattern of the abuser being a completely
different person to who they started off as being at the beginning of the relationship.
I believe this is a sophisticated way too approach this topic as it challenges
the audience to think a about what domestic abuse really is. It may not always
be physical; there are different forms of domestic violence, through this
exploration I could also raise awareness of these issues through my work. It
would be a good starting point to experiment with metaphoric scenes to
represent feeling, and then develop my work from there, which could become
fairly powerful. I feel a metaphoric approach as the power of waking the
audience up and making them realise. However it also has the danger of creating
a superficial investigation which could achieve a contrasting purpose. I could
also cover the aspects of physical and mental abuse by merging them together.
The idea of using a film
camera was also a dominate idea as, it would show and freeze the
movements they demonstrate the truth about domestic abuse, I would draw
inspiration from Nan Goldin.
Artist Work: Nan Goldin
I have
studied Nan Goldin in my personal investigation, as I feel her work gives an honest
perspective of real life situation which do not consist of editing and as a
result the moment is frozen. This effect makes the image feel real and perhaps
person to Goldin. That moment cannot be change, this is the beauty of using a
film camera. She approaches domestic abuse in way in which the media, may
choose try to recreate but would never display a real victim because of the
nature of the images. It is also important that the media does not expose
victims to the public in this way because of confidentiality to protect the victim.
Goldin’s approach could trigger discomfort with in the audience. However the
media must also consider how the viewers may find this type of representation
uncomfortable. She uses a
film camera as it captures that exact moment they don’t consist of props or any
other additions.
In this
image Goldin is the subject and appears to be badly beaten,
she was in an abusively relationship at the time with her partner and recorded
her journey through it. He would beat her badly and they
would consistently argue. In this composition she is stood
in the center of the image. She has used a film camera, which would
explain the graininess of the photograph. The image is fairly
simple and uses the camera flash has it only light source by doing so the
lighting only hit the subject in front of it, which in this case is Goldin. The
room before the image was taken appear to be dark, possibly suggesting
that she would have been at a house party because of the make she is wearing.
She is dress up and has her make up; her hair nicely done and
her glamorous earring. She has not made any attempts to cover up the bruises,
she is almost parading them. She does
not seem to be ashamed of them and her facial expression may suggest that she
is happy nor in happy. Its displays a blank facial expression. However this approach
could be seen as prompting domestic abuse because of the acceptance of the
image by the viewers. Through my work I would like to try and avoid displaying images
of women who have been badly bruised as this could be seen as giving the wrong
message to the my intended audience. On the other hand she can be seen as
trying to raise awareness of these issue and how serious the effects. By her
using herself she is giving a real representation of a victims, which could
shock the audience into trying to find symptoms before they begin to escalate quickly.
This may suggest Goldin is trying to also represent the truth about domestic
abuse. Commonly in domestic abuse relationships, victims tend to try and hide away,
Golding is challenging this by coming out and speaking out. In the image she
does not appear to be scared she just carries a plan expression on her face.
She could also be trying to represent how strong and braves she feel and they
idea that this does not over power. The suggestion to why Goldin displayed such
explicitly images will forever be questioned. I feel as though through my work
I would like to display my own interpretation of her work, to add a realness to
my work.
Sara
Naomi Lewkowicz
Sara Naomi Lewkowicz is a
photographer from America she has had a rough up bringing she lost her mother
when she was eight years of age, she suffered a drug addiction and this affected
her life greatly. Lewkowicz had
experienced domestic abuse with her husband with whom she had a child , this
amuse would have affected the child as well as her. In her documentary about
her experience with domestic violence she states that ‘He started to push
people out of my life’ one of the process in which a perpetrator starts to do before
the abuse begins to esclate. Various women have also supported this fact, as
they state that they also have been through the same process at the beginning
of an abusive relationship. Lewkowicz document the journey through her
relationship, including various moments in their relationship which are happy
but mainly the arguments and the fights that occur between her and her husband.
She explores the happy times, which they experience but also the brutal and
disturbing parts. This is a fairly true representation of Domestic Violence as
this was actually taking place at that moment and time and it is not staged. It
demonstrates that these types of relationship the perpetrator can manipulate
the victim and make them feel the way that they desire.
This image is an example of a
frozen moment. This was something I was interesting in using within my own work.
The scene is completely natural had not been tempered with. The people in the
image are involved with the encounter involving victim herself but also her
child is affect as he appears to be deeply distresses. It is much more emotive
as the result of the explicit nature of the argument and adding further to the
discomfort to the audience is the discomfort of the child in the background. By
using child this makes the scene appear rather wrong and the child emphasis the
inappropriate nature of this scene. I was interest in the idea that Domestic
violence does just affect the victims but people who whiteness. It affect them
emotionally and they may grow to have problems in the future. There
is main dominant light coming from the cooker, it appear to be the main
light source. This was something I drew inspiration from in my own work I
started to experiment using lighting around the house and streets in order to
create realism into my work.
Conclusion
After completing this research I was confident with the angle I wanted to approach my investigation. Through my work I wanted to show a real life domestic abuse relationship however I did not want to create a scene which was fabricated and perhaps gave the audience a fictional representation of Domestic abuse. When I looked at Nan Goldin and Sara Naomi Lewkowicz they both approach it from different angles. Although in my work I have attempted to research and development my work from the starting point of representing my victims with a literal aspects as the media does so, I have later developed my work and started approaching the this issue from different aspects by looking at the victims and exploring the effects of the abuse. I gained inspiration from Sara Naomi Lewkowicz and the way she used her lighting this can be seen in some of my final selections.
Most of my first images are studio based and I wanted to explore the result of domestic abuse , and I wanted to explore how the media represented victims however I wasn’t impressed with these images and I felt I could stretch my ability a lot further. I then start to take inspiration from Nan Goldin and stage various scenes of a victims after they had just been abuse. This also felt perhaps dull and, did not display what I wanted to in my work. I then started to take a different approach on my investigation and began to look at the suttle hints that may occur when someone is involved in a relationship like this. I felt this worked much better for me and made the audience question the women in the photographs.
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