Grace Brown, a student at New York’s School of Visual Arts, was so moved by the horrific descriptions of sexual abuse from a victim that last October she started photography project called Project Unbreakable [1]. Grace's idea is using photography to help heal sexual abuse survivors by asking them to write a quote from their attacker on a poster and photographing them holding the poster. The victims can submit the images themselves or can ask the project to photograph them. The photographs are then posted on a blog in Tumlbr which are getting reblogged by many – thus spreading awareness.
[1]
Grace writes [2] for a fund-raiser campaign:
I am nineteen years old, and my career could end tomorrow, but I'd still feel fulfilled. I want to take this project a step further. I want to be able to travel to different areas in America to photograph, to speak, to show my work – to show people that they are not alone. And maybe one day, I can turn this project into an organization, providing professional help for survivors, something that I am unfortunately not qualified to give.
We all have the ability to change the world – it's just a matter of deciding how we want to. If you can donate, I would appreciate it. If you can't, please just share this page if you are willing. And if you are a survivor of sexual abuse, I want you to remember that you are unbreakable.
[3]Anonymous user submission. Image courtesy Project Unbreakable
Blogger and public speaker Amy Phillips writes in the Washington Times [4]:
The photographs are reminders that the words and the deeds are never forgotten. Each placard held represents a small act of justice. Held up to the light, each quote stuns with its audacity, with its evil, with its sheer creepiness. As you read them, you judge it for what it is. Victimization in words.
[5]Anonymous user submission in Project Unbreakable
On March 3, 2012 Grace will be at Union Station in Washington, D.C. [6], from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to take photos of people who were sexually abused.
Anyone interested in participating by either being photographed or sending in an image, may email Grace at projectunbreakable@gmail.com and put the subject line “Photograph Me” or “Submission,” depending on the circumstance.