Invisible Eve
book and exhibit, goal is to humanize the incarcerated women and give them a voice from behind prison walls. They wrote messages of inspiration for the next generation, in the hope, their voices from inside help people outside. They felt they are part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.
Invisible Eve
Yousef Khanfar | Oklahoma, United States
Photographer: Yousef Khanfar
Exhibit Title: Invisible Eve
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Women Incarceration Project is two phases. First phase, Invisible Eve, book and exhibit, goal is to humanize the incarcerated women and give them a voice from behind prison walls. They wrote messages of inspiration for the next generation, in the hope, their voices from inside help people outside. They felt they are part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.
I photographed them without make up and against seamless white background, I want them to leap out of whiteness and greet viewers with their eyes. Some were with their children who pay the ultimate price. Others were photographed between two walls, a metaphor of being trapped.
The project inspired panel discussions, changed laws and built a rehabilitation center, where hope is oxygen and second chance is a religion. The book received appreciations from Supreme Court, White House and others. We also created a video with Alicia Keys on Dignity for incarcerated women.
Second phase, Visible Eve, is to capture women voices regarding life challenges after they leave prison (In process).http://www.YousefKhanfar.com
I believe art can change the future; art is a teacher. My mission is not about photography, but about humanity. And I hope that, every mother will be motivated to share this book with her daughter.
When I discovered United States has the highest incarceration of women per capita in the world, I decided to take on the Prison Project. I needed a sample from the total population, so I chose the state of Oklahoma which has the highest incarceration rate for women per capita.
I refused to digitally manipulate their images. All the women were asked to remain natural and not wear make-up. I photographed most of them against a white, seamless paper, eliminating all distractions in the background. I wanted them to leap out of whiteness, leap out of the image, and greet viewers with their eyes.
I came to the understanding that I might not be able to help the women inside prison, but their voices might be able to help the women outside prison. Therefore, I asked each lady to write from their own unfortunate experience words of inspiration for the next generation. They felt they part of the solution, instead of part of the problem.
While listening to the stories of these women in prison, it seems to me they were once young budding flowers about to blossom, but somehow, they were swept away by gales of temptation, washed away by currents of crime, and carried down into an artificial ocean, where the glamorous life is religion, material things are worshiped, drugs are available everywhere, violence is endorsed on every screen, crime is embroidered with romance, and the noble flesh of Eve is offered for sale. And one must ask: Whom do you blame, these souls or society?
When an inmate leaves the prison, there lies yet another prison outside, as dark and as savage. It is a metaphysical prison, a cell within the mind whose walls are nightmare and unforgiving, whose chains are anxiety and guilt, and whose bars are rejection and condemnation. Just when they think they have finally gained their freedom, they discover they are going to a larger prison with a longer sentence, yet this time without committing a crime.
Hope is oxygen. To these women in prison, hope is everything. The hope to start again, to break through the steel net of life, to live in the midst of their families, to breathe new possibilities of employment, to gaze at the world with smiling eyes, and walk in the procession of freedom.
It is my hope that we as people and nation cease to be number one in incarceration but number one in education.
Yousef Khanfar
www.YousefKhanfar.com
YousefKhanfar@hotmail.com
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