Behind the Scenes: Suffering, Writ Large – Lens Blog

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Behind the Scenes: Suffering, Writ Large

A show at the United Nations about victims of sexual violence in Congo conceals identities but elevates the victims to a size larger than life, as Kassie Bracken finds.

via Lens Blog: http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/behind-20/

The photography in “Congo/Women” — together with essays and video interviews online — explores the systemic violence against women, and the political and economic factors that sustain it. The images are provocative and disturbing: a malnourished child being measured in a clinic; the severed arm of a mother of three, lost while defending her children; a 70-year-old victim of gang rape awaiting counseling; child soldiers leaning against a fence, machine guns in tow.