burnedshoes:

© Donna Ferrato, 1987, ‘The Arrest’ (L’arresto), Minneapolis / USA

I just read this interview with Donna Ferrato from 1998 on ASX and thought it’s worth sharing:

“The boy is saying to his father, ‘I hate you for hitting my mother, and I hope you never come back to this house.’ Nobody, even the parents who signed a release for this picture, realized how powerful it was going to be until they saw it in the magazine and they flipped out.” (Donna Ferrato; read the whole interview and see more pictures here)

In 1987, Ferrato rode along with the Minneapolis police as they responded to 911 calls. A boy named Diamond made a call saying that his father was physically attacking his mother. He was the first child Ferrato had seen stand up for his mother at a moment when most children would be afraid. The image of his bravery not only left an impression on Ferrato and the police, but was hailed as one of the most influential photographs in the world by Life Magazine. Twenty years later, Ferrato searched for and found Diamond. His parents are still together and maintain a healthy relationship with their son.

In 1991, Aperture published Ferrato’s book on domestic violence ‘Living With the Enemy’. Shortly afterwards, a New York battered women’s shelter approached her to collect the photographs as an exhibition for a benefit event. Building on the success of this, Ferrato established the Domestic Abuse Awareness, Inc. to raise funds and to educate the public about domestic violence.

(Source: burnedshoes, via burnedshoes)

20 Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken : #15

Erik Refner captured one of the most mournful moment ina refugee camp close to Peshawar, near the Afghan border. A one-year-old boy had died in the camp after death dehydrated.

“There is the strong contrast between the white cloth and the dark arms. The child looks like he has a little smile around his mouth - as if he has finally gone to a better place…Then there is the fact that it is old people burying a young child - it should be the other way around. There is a lot of symbolism in that picture. All these things make it very powerful…” 

He went into the tent where the male members of the family had started to prepare the child’s body for burial according to Muslim tradition. 

“I briefly paid my condolences to the father, than I asked him if it was okay for me to take the pictures. According to tradition, it is the men who prepare the body. In this case, it was the child’s father, his brother and an imam. Those are the arms that you can see in the picture. Everything happened very quickly - the ceremony took around 10 minutes. I was sitting on the ground shooting pictures and then taking them from above. It was a difficult situation - there was a lot of sadness.”

20 Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken : #14

A Cambodian woman cradles her defenceless child while waiting for food to be distributed at at a refugee camp, Thailand. This photo was taken by David Burnett, a winner World Press Photo of the Year, November 1979.

Haiti Aftermath by Jan Grarup. 2012 Leica Oskar Barnack Award Winner.