Wisdom and Inspiration
A Photographer's Journey of Hope: Paige Stoyer and Sanctuary for Families
By Jerry Currier
Feb 10, 2009

© Paige Stoyer

There are many perceptions about photography—an art, a way to tell a story, a technique to record an event, a method to preserve an accurate image of an object, a means of preserving memories of important family occasions.  The list goes on and on and on.  

Photography has long been used to influence opinions, to sway public sentiments and as an instrument for social change.  

For a number of months, photographer Paige Stoyer, a recent ICP (International Center of Photography) graduate, was involved in a photographic project called “The Long Journey.”  

Working in partnership with Sanctuary for Families, a New York City-based non-profit organization dedicated to aiding victims of domestic violence and their children, “The Long Journey” is comprised of three parts:  

First, the use of photography to document the daily lives of three women and their children, including the grown daughter of one of the women.  Due to her mother having been badly beaten during her pregnancy, this daughter has learning disabilities yet is pursuing childhood education in college because she wants to help children who are struggling like she did.  

In the beginning of the project, Stoyer sought out the advice of Donna Ferrato, whose groundbreaking book, Living With the Enemy, has been instrumental in raising public consciousness about domestic violence.  Ferrato graciously offered insights concerning some of the difficulties and responsibilities of photographing domestic violence victims that Stoyer found very useful during the course of her work on “The Long Journey.”

Student Image/Sanctuary for Families

For the second part of the project, backed by a grant from Fujifilm, Stoyer taught a photography class to these women that gave lessons in the technical aspects of photography, the art of photographic communication and its use as a tool for personal self-expression and healing.  

In addition to grant monies, Fujifilm donated cameras for the women in the class to use in their ongoing exploration of photography.  By recording scenes from their daily lives, these women seek to use photography as part of the healing process as they grapple with the need to recover from years of abuse and violence.  

The third part of “The Long Journey” project will culminate in a one-evening exhibition of portraits Stoyer shot during her work on this project.  Images captured by the women themselves will provide personal depth.  The exhibition will take place on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 at The New School, Aaronson Galleries, 66 Fifth Avenue at 14th Street, New York City.  The exhibition will serve as a fundraiser, benefitting Sanctuary for Families.  Stoyer has limited the quantity of her images in this exhibition because she wanted to include a number of the photographs taken by the women.  Stoyer is donating her framed images, the sale of which will be used to raise money to benefit Sanctuary for Families.  

Stoyer explains that the project was born while she was doing some volunteer work for Sanctuary for Families.  She decided she would like to get to know the women that Sanctuary was trying to help.  She wanted to make portraits of these women that attempted to capture their pain, their courage, and their “long journey” to build a new life for themselves and their children.  

Student Image/Sanctuary for Families

Gaining the trust of these women was a challenge that Stoyer had to overcome before the project could reach fruition.  As she relates, “We met weekly for an extended period of time, over nine months in fact.  This was because it took a long time for them to develop a deep level of trust in me and in the process of making images, with the vulnerability that can create.  

In order for them to be able to shoot images, we spent five months on the photography class I was teaching.  We would discuss the images they shot each week so that we could learn from one another through that process.  

For me, the initial plan of this project was to make portraits of the women.  Because I was originally very restricted in being able to meet with them, due to the women’s safety concerns, I didn’t expect to be able to make documentary images about them.  But as our trust level grew, three of the women allowed me access to their everyday lives.  In one case, even visiting her home.”  

Further, Stoyer states, “As a writer I was often drawn to people’s stories of struggle and survival.  I suppose it’s natural that this has become one of my interests photographically as well.  And as a woman and a mother, I can imagine no greater struggle than to face this kind of intimate violence in your life, violence that threatens the safety of you and your children every moment of every day.  

In her introduction for the exhibition, Stoyer writes, “When we first started, I didn't know how this would unfold; how I would be able to get close enough to these women to capture in images the depth of their experiences and struggles.  For a long time we could only meet in a small room at an office in an undisclosed location, where the women felt safe.  The lighting was challenging, as was figuring out when it was appropriate to start taking pictures.  We spent many of our first meetings just learning about each other and developing a level of trust.  

Student Image/Sanctuary for Families

But they opened up their lives and their hearts to me, and as we got to know each other we began to make portraits reflecting their incredible journey.  Together we embarked on our own photographic voyage as these women helped me understand what domestic violence does to a person and what they had been through in their lives.”  

Stoyer goes on to say, “Teaching the women photography has helped them find a creative outlet for their struggles and pain.  It has been very empowering for them.  They are learning to find their own voices again, to begin to find out who they are and what they are capable of.  It is a tangible and visible reminder to them that they are allowed to speak up, and having regained their voices, can use that power to raise awareness about their stories and about domestic violence.  They can create images that that they love, that can bring some joy back into their lives to fill the large hole that was left from years of being torn down.  

This show will give the women in this project an even bigger arena in which to be heard, to bring light to a subject often not talked about, especially in a deep and personal way such as this.”  

The power photography can exert is demonstrated by Stoyer’s account of how one woman’s difficulties with bureaucracy were resolved.   

After three attempts of trying to flee an abusive husband and being stopped by a relative, she was finally able to get out.  Taking her kids and little else, even family pictures were left behind, she went into a shelter where she began the process of obtaining public housing for herself and her children.  

When Stoyer first met this family, they had been living in the shelter for almost three years.  

© Paige Stoyer

“I was shocked.  After everything they had been through, they had no place to call home and they were now forced to live in this very vulnerable situation, where the children did not feel safe to even play,” Stoyer says.   

“Time after time, [this woman] had filled out the paperwork and done what she had to do to get an apartment of her own.  This meant dragging her children all the way across the city and waiting for hours at the housing office.  The office continually dropped the ball.  In her case, one person appears to have intentionally done so.  For what reason I cannot imagine.  The final straw came when she once again had an apartment lined up.  The housing office only had to go and do their inspection.  She made many calls to the housing office, but they never did the inspection within the necessary time frame and another potential home was lost.  So we decided I would go up with her to the housing office, bring my camera and document the situation while making it clear, in a friendly way, that I was doing a story on her circumstances.  

Within several weeks, another person took over her case.  This person was very helpful and kind and promised she would get them an apartment.  

One of the images my friend will have in the show is a picture she recently took of her new home.  The very first home she has had where she and her children feel safe.  Another image shows her children relaxed and playing in their new home, something they had never been able to do before.”  

When asked whether she plans on continuing her relationship with Sanctuary for Families, Stoyer responds, “I would like to, although with my move back to Oregon, it will be more long distance.  The stories became very personal to me and I plan to stay in touch with the women who were in my project.  Just recently one of the women had a setback that is compromising her and her children’s safety again.  Even when they find some way to eventually leave their abusers, they must continue to look over their shoulders.  They are never completely safe.

Sanctuary is an incredible organization that provides so many levels of support for these families.  I will always look for ways to help them and their cause.  I may also pickup this project again here in Oregon.  Domestic violence lives in all of our neighborhoods.”