Image Project

For this image project, we had to choose an image related to our social justice issue. I chose a picture of a young girl with her mouth cover by a trafficker to represent modern day slavery that spans the globe today. Many of the young women, often between the ages of 12 and 14, are captured, exploited, and enslaved into a horrendous trade where they are traded, sold, and used to “work” in sexual means.

Often when I think of human trafficking, I think of someone being stripped of his or her rights, rights to their own body and freedom (as to being captured and exploited). There is a hand across the young girl’s mouth which symbolizes oppression and weakness because she has no say or power over her body and opinion. The hand belongs to the trafficker, her authority, the one who takes control over her being and exploits her for his profit. The image is supposed to speak for itself, in a sense, for those who are aware of the issue of human trafficking and sex slavery, in a better sense. But for those who do not, I added some text to the picture to induce a sense of comprehension of this immoral act that 12.3 million girls are enslaved under. “This isn’t how she imagined her first “job”” is meant to imply that she was forced into this criminal offense and that she can’t believe that it could happen to her, which is supposed to introduce the viewer to a sense of fear and astonishment because this means if it can happen to this little girl, it can happen to anybody. It could be your daughter, sister, best friend, or anybody you know.

I changed the colors of the photo to make the girl’s face appear darker and dirty, and the hands of the oppressor even dirtier. I did this to instill a more powerful feeling of darkness where when we think see the dirty face and dirtier hands, we can see how mistreated and dirty the girl is to do an even dirtier man’s job. Often, these girls are mistreated and uncared for because they are merely objects of business and when one girl stops being useful, the man will pull another girl from her ordinary life and introduce her to her worst nightmare.

I wanted the image to represent reality and hopefully invoke fear, anger, sympathy, and compassion as human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry. It continues to grow as it gets harder and harder to pinpoint. Although the image is of a girl, this crime could victimize people of different gender, age, nationality, or any other factor that makes an individual unique. Human trafficking knows not of racism or sexism, for it will victimize anyone. I hope this image speaks for more than just females (who are the majority of victims who are trafficked) but to men as well, and together promote awareness and speak up for its victims.

~ by maggie on May 6, 2013.