How do we visualise sexual violence in this ‘#metoo‘ era? I will be (partially) attempting to answer this question later this month at the International Conference for Photography and Theory.
The media narrative seems to be that much is changing (or about to change), but I’m not so sure. Looking at the photographic history, we are seeing a re-run of previous ‘survivor’ focused stories and images. However, new ground is being tentatively broken by a few photographers and publishers… and their methods could prove better at affecting legal and political change than our current way of envisioning sexual violence.
I’m seeking any publication or platform that might be interested in publishing some of my research (a series of blog posts?). If anyone has a clue or lead, please let me know.
I hope to share more about my research, but for now, here’s my piece, ‘You Did This to Yourself’ [Trigger warning: sexual violence] from 2011. For the conference, I’ve updated and re-explored the research I did back then. Even ‘post’ #metoo (as media pundits like to say), I think the same fundamental problems that I identified here exist in our cultural representations of sexual violence – preventing us from defeating it.
Madeleine Corcoran 