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Violence Against Women

DOI: 10.1177/1077801205280271

2005; 11; 1396VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMENLisa Frohmann

The Framing Safety Project: Photographs and Narratives by Battered Women

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10.1177/1077801205280271VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN / November 2005Frohmann / THE FRAMING SAFETY PROJECT

The Framing Safety ProjectPhotographs and Narratives by Battered Women

LISA FROHMANNUniversity of IllinoisChicago

This article describesthe Framing SafetyProject that theauthordeveloped to do collabo-rative, communityaction/education research withbatteredwomen about the meaning ofsafety in their lives. The project is built on the use of participant-generated photographs

andphoto-elicitation interviews as methods forexploring withwomen, in support groupsettings, the meanings of violence in their lives and their approaches to creating saferspaces. Although visual sociologists have used variations of these methods, particularlyto study the experiences of children, the author combines them in a uniquely feministapproach that leads from thewomens photography and interviewsto a community edu-cation and action component. The author describes the process of developing and imple-mentingthisprojectwithMexicanandSouthAsianimmigrantwomenanddiscussestheways in which its methodological approach serves to amplify the voices of silencedwomen, and to offer opportunities for community education and social action.

Keywords: domestic violence; Mexican immigrant women; South Asian immigrantwomen; visual methodologyphotography

The Framing Safety Project is a workshop, offered in supportgroup settings, for women who are or have been battered andare interested in exploring, through photography and narrative,

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AUTHORS NOTE: This projectwas a collaborativeeffort. I thankall of theproject par-ticipants for your openness and honesty, for trusting me with your stories, and for yourwillingness to use your life experiences to educate others. You are powerful women. Thisproject wasmadepossible by donationsfromHelixCamera, Ltd.;GammaPhotoand Digi-tal Imaging Labs; HammerMill Paper Company; Studio ERA2; and Calumet Photo-graphic, Inc. The project was funded by grants from the University of IllinoisChicagoGreatCities Institute,CampusResearchBoard,Institutefor theHumanities,and theAmer-ican Sociological Association Spivak Program in Applied Social Research and Social Pol-icy. I would like to thank the translators, Danila Miranda, Ines Sahagun, and Cristina

Arroyo, for their tireless work. I would also like to thank Nancy A. Matthews for all thesupport she has provided during this project.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, Vol. 11 No. 11, November 2005 1396-1419DOI: 10.1177/1077801205280271 2005 Sage Publications

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their experiences and strategies for living with the violence in

their lives. The project has three interrelated components: self-exploration, reflection, and change; community educationsocialaction;and research. The project emerged outof my work on legalresponses to battering. Working with legal agents, I found anunderlying assumption that if women use legal remedies (i.e.,temporary restraining orders, arrest, and prosecution of batter-ers) they will be safe, or at least safer. The literature on legal reme-dies suggests mixed reviews on the relationship between the useof remedies and womens safety (Ford & Regoli, 1993; Harrell &Smith, 1996; Hirschel & Hutchison, 1996; Jang, Lee, & Frosch,1990; Schmidt & Sherman, 1996). When I talked to survivors andadvocates, it was very clear that safety is a fluid concept. It hasspatio-temporal dimensions. It is not always linked to the use oflegal remedies, although it can be. My intention in creating theFraming Safety Project was to explore the everyday and indige-nous meanings of safety for such women.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

The Framing Safety Project is a therapeutic tool, a communityeducation and action strategy, participatory action research forwomen to explore their experiences living in and extricatingthemselves from a battering relationship, and a means of inform-

ing others about the realities of these experiences. The project iscentered on battered womens photographic representations andassociated narratives of the violence in their lives and their strate-gies for survival and safekeeping. The project has three separatebut interrelated components: (a) participant-generated photo-graphs, (b) community exhibits of the photographs, and (c)research conducted through interviews and ethnographic obser-vation of the first two phases of the project and in-depth inter-viewsorganized around participants photographs. The programuses a progressive participatory action strategy. Women maychoose to take part in all three components or any combinationthereof. It isdesigned to give participantscontrol andflexibility indeciding how to participate. A common goal of all three sectionsis to empower participants and act as a tool for social change.

Thus far, I have conducted this project with three groups ofwomen. This report offers some preliminary reflections on the

Frohmann / THE FRAMING SAFETY PROJECT 1397



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value of this alternative methodology for addressing violence in

womens lives.

PROJECT GOALS

1. To provide participants with a medium for self-exploration,expression, and reflection on the violence in their lives (interper-sonal and systemic) through photography and narrative.

2. To enable women to identify, make visible, and value all thetaken-for-granted worktheydo (i.e., theirsafekeeping strategies)on a daily basis to survive and to keep children and others safe.

3. To empower women to make their own decisions, honor theirown feelings, and choose their own actions (Sharma, 2001, p.

1409) by gaining a betterunderstanding of their lives through theintegration of the knowledge and insight gained from the work-shop with the counseling work they are doing in support groupsand individual therapy.

4. To educate the community about battering as a social problem,thecauses of battering,and availableresources andinterventions.

5. To add the voices of women who have been or are experiencingbattering and related abuse to policy-level discussion on batter-ing so these policies may better reflect the needs of batteredwomen themselves.

METHODS

This project is informed by feminist methods and the method-ological traditions of visual anthropology and sociology.

FEMINIST METHODS

Feminist methods make problematic the taken-for-granted as-sumptions about womens lives and the political, economic, andsocial systems and ideologies that shape our lives. By problem-atizing these assumptions, our research destabilizes the produc-tion of knowledge andknowledge itself. Feminist researchersrec-ognize womens subjective experience as an important andlegitimate base for knowledge and political activity and struggle

to develop methods that give voice to womensexperiences with-out distortion or exploitation of those who speak. More generally,feminist methods try to deconstruct rather than reify societalpower hierarchies. Feminist methods support research that can

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be used for social and political change that benefits womens lives

(Cannon, Higgenbotham, & Leung, 1988; Collins, 1990; Devault,1999; Fine, 1992; Harding, 1986; Hertz, 1997; Smith, 1987; Zinn,Cannon, Higgenbotham, & Dill, 1986).

Feminist approaches have been critical in recognizing, study-ing, and challenging the pervasive violence in womens lives. Inthis project, they have informed my methods in several ways.First, my commitment to empowering the participants meant Ichose a method that had the participants, not the researcher orother professionals, identify and photograph significant experi-ences in their lives. The project is designed to provide partici-pants with a range of private spaces and public settings (supportgroups, photography exhibits, research interviews, and dispersalof information) in which experiences can be heard. The projectparticipation framework gives women choices of how and whento participate. Second, the knowledge gained from the project canbe used for further research and for individual and social action.Third, the project is structured as a collaborationbetween the par-ticipants and me. Fourth, I take a reflexive approach to theresearchprocess andI contextualize myself withinthe project andmy writing.

PARTICIPANT-GENERATED IMAGES

AND PHOTO-ELICITATION INTERVIEWS

Anthropologists, and more recently sociologists, have usedphotography as a research tool (Becker, 1974). Historically, inanthropology, it has been used for ethnographic data collection,in which the researcher, as expert, decides what is significant in aparticular culture and uses the camera to document these per-sons, places, rituals, and cultural artifacts. Visual anthropologistsand sociologists have also begun to give cameras to research par-ticipants and have them photograph what is significant in theirculture. This method has been referred to as indigenousmediastud-iesand the photos asnative-generated images.

Participant-generated images provide an opportunity for tra-

ditionally silenced populations to document their lives and theenvironments they live in (Ewald, 1985; Hubbard, 1994; Leavitt,Lingafelter, & Morello, 1998). Thus, the traditional power imbal-ance between photographer or researcher and subject is brokendown. Analysis of visual images provides insight into social



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interactions, social relationships, social structures, ideology, and

cultural norms (Bateson & Mead, 1942; Collier & Collier, 1986;Goffman, 1979; Harper, 1998; D. B. Schwartz,1989).What we pho-tograph and how photographs are interpreted are shaped by thevalues, beliefs, assumptions, and experiences that we bring to theact. As a form of self-expression, visual techniques also provide awindow into the photographers immediate environment, signif-icant relationships, feelings, and perceptions of self (Cavin, 1994;Ewald, 1985; Hubbard, 1994; Leavitt et al., 1998; Orellana, 1999;Ziller & Smith, 1977).

Visual anthropologists and sociologists have also used photo-graphs in conjunction with ethnographic fieldwork as the basisof interviews with participants. This process is called photo-elicitation. It involves showing participants pictures of them-selves, their history, or their environment and asking them to talkabout what they see (Harper, 1998; Harrison, 2002; Suchar, 1989).The three main uses of photo-elicitation are to reveal the ethno-meanings of the informant, to reveal aspects of the informantssocial psychology, and to examine the meaning of behavior andsocial process in which participants engage (Suchar, 1989).

EXPLORING EMPOWERMENT AND HEALING

In this project, I combine participant-generated images and

photo-elicitation interviews. My intent was to empower womenby enabling them to direct our gaze toward images of their choos-ing as well as giving voice to their own experiential standpoints(Haraway, 1988; Harding, 1986; Smith, 1987). This method giveswomen a medium to frame and define what issignificant ina spe-cific setting and within the larger context of social relationshipsandtheenvironmentsinwhich theylive.They choose thesubjectsof the photographs. They determine who or what to include orexclude from the frames. This act of self-determination mightincrease womens feeling of independence and self-esteem (Bery,2003; Ewald, 1985; Hubbard, 1994; Leavitt et al., 1998).

Furthermore, the discussionsthat occur in the photo-elicitation

interviews erode some of the power differential inherent in tradi-tional interviewsor anyother setting where an authority is direct-ing the conversation (i.e., the interviewer determines what ques-tions, topics, and information are relevant). The photographstaken by the participant are used to shape the topics of the inter-



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view, and the participant, not the interviewer, defines what is sig-

nificant and interprets its meaning. This method places partici-pants in the role of expert in the interaction, as they narrate thephotographs they took of their lives (Blinn & Harrist, 1991; Clark,1999; Collier & Collier, 1986; Harper, 1998; Norman, 1991; D. B.Schwartz, 1989). At the beginning of the interview, participantsare asked to arrange the photographs in groups meaningful tothem, by story lines or themes they want to convey. Organizingthe photographs involves decisions about which images toinclude and exclude, the sequencing of events, or the importanceof an image.

Taking their own photographs is a method for participants toexplore taken-for-granted assumptions about their lives (Becker,1974). It is a way for participants to tap into the subjectivity oftheir battering experiences. It provides a means and opportunityfor women to shift their orientations to specific settings, tobecome observers, observer-participants, or participants. Thisshift might assist women to see aspects of their lives previouslyunrecognized or ignored. It might provide the participant-photographer additional insight into her immediate environ-ment, significant relationship, perceptions of self, and percep-tions of her experiences.The power of this knowledge and insightmay lead to change.

In addition, these methods may facilitate the healing process.

In the tradition of feminist work with survivors of male violence,the discourses of empowerment and therapeutic healing havebeen intertwined. My project is related to art therapy in the wayart in general is used with victims of violence to assist them inexpressing the fear and trauma they suffer in their lives. Psychol-ogists have used photography as a form of therapy (Cox &Lothstein, 1989; Furman, 1990; Laing, 1980; Landgarten, 1981;McNiff & Cook, 1975), and narrating photographs has beenshown to promote self-reflection and self-understanding and toprovide a means of expressing fear and trauma (Killian, 2001).

REVIEW OF RECENT RESEARCH

A review of recent research that combines participant-generated images and photo-elicitation provides a glimpse oftheir methodological power and potential. Several photogra-




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phers and researchers have used participant-generated images

and photo-elicitation with children as a method for understand-ingtheir worldviews (Cavin, 1994; Clark,1999; Ewald,1985; Hub-bard, 1994; Leavitt et al., 1998; Orellana, 1999; Rich & Chalfen,1999; Venkateswar, 2002).

Autophotography, a method used in social psychology, hasparticipants use the camera to explore issues of identity and theself through their orientations to the social and physical environ-ments. For example, this method has been used to explore issuesof gender identity (Clancy & Dollinger, 1993; Ziller & Smith,1977), to understand how wheelchair-bound individuals interactwith their environment (Ziller & Smith, 1977), and to explore howshypersons interact with theirenvironment(Ziller & Rorer, 1985).

Photovoice, a participant action strategy developed by WangandBurris (1998), blendsa grass-rootsapproach to photographyand social action (Wang, Yi, Tao, & Carovano, 1998, p. 1). Thisstrategy gives cameras to community members who typicallyhave novoice insocialpolicy asa way for them to identify the sig-nificant issues in their lives and communities. Community mem-bers photograph their health and work realities, discuss the con-tent of their images in small groups, and then communicate theirideas and common themes to policymakers (e.g., Wang, Burris, &Xiang, 1996).

PHASE 1: THE PROJECT AS IT UNFOLDS

Prior to recruiting groups to participate, I laid the groundworkfor the project. I successfully solicited donations for cameras,film processing, and album kits. Much time was spent gettingapproval from the University of IllinoisChicago Internal ReviewBoard(IRB),which wasdifficultforreasons related to theissues ofconfidentiality and consent.

A central element in addressing these issues was participantcontrol. Each participant (including secondary subjects) deter-mined theformand degree of identity masking. Forexample,par-ticipants chose to use either their given name or a pseudonym orto be anonymous,andthe identifying details of participants livescould range from completely transparent to completely opaque.For the group sessions, all persons in the group agreed to berecorded. All participants in the group remained anonymous,




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and any information that could violate their identity-masking

decisions was edited out of the transcript. The photographsbelong to the participants. They decided which photographswere shared in the group, which ones were used for the researchinterview, and which ones appeared in any public display of thiswork (i.e., academic products, such as books or conference mate-rial and public exhibits). Secondary subjects were provided withthe same options as other participants. To attend to participantsemotional well-being, the group facilitator, who is also a thera-pist,was present at all group sessions. She was also on call duringthe participant interviews and could be reached 24 hrs a daythrough a hotline. To insure that the participants understood theproject and their roles and rights as participants, I engaged in anongoing consent process.

Participants were recruited from support groups from twoagencies in the Chicago area that provide services to batteredwomen. Two of the groups were comprised of women who hademigrated from Mexico. The third group consisted of primarilySouth Asian immigrant women.

In total, 42 women were given cameras, and 29 returned themfor processing. Twenty-four did research interviews and 26 par-ticipated in the community exhibits. One woman never took acamera but continued to participate in the group and the commu-nity exhibit. For the exhibit, she placed her narratives next to

black and white squares. The names that are used in text about theproject follow the participants identity-masking guidelines.Working with Mexican and South Asian immigrants chal-

lenged my linguistic abilities and cultural knowledge. The twoLatina support groups were conducted entirely in Spanish. Iunderstood some Spanish but was not fluent enough to partici-pate or interview without a translator. The South Asian groupwas conducted in English, but there were members who did notspeak English, so conversations were also translated by the sup-port group facilitator and other participants intoUrdu and Hindi.These language arrangements made me even more acutely reflec-tive about how the differences between the participants and me

shaped my interactions (Bolak, 1997; Devault, 1999; Edwards,1990; Hertz, 1997; Riessman, 1987; Zinn, 1979). The following aresome examples of how cultural, linguistic, and ethnic differencesinformed my work.




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I am a White, middle-class woman of European descent. Hav-

ing taken Spanish years ago in school, when I began the projectI was moderately able to read and understand conversations,but my speaking ability was very limited. My linguistic abilityshaped my data collection. For example, in group, I typicallywould listen to the discussions in Spanish and ask questions inEnglish. My questions and the womens answers were translatedby the support group facilitators, who doubled as translators. Onseveral occasions, the group facilitators, who are not trainedtranslators, would provide me with a synthesized version ofgroup discussions or participant responses. My ability to followmuch of the discussions in Spanish filled in this gap, but particu-larly in the beginning when I was not used to the pace of talk andmy vocabulary was more limited, I missed details. On other occa-sions, participants would use idiomatic expressions or culturalreferences that could not be or were not translated and, therefore,remained elusive. As much as possible, I would ask what a partic-ular phrase, expression, or reference meant at the close of a meet-ing. These data collection issues were less of a problem in thegroups in which I was able to tape-record the proceedings. Inthese situations, I could refer to the text and ask participants to fillin what I initially did not understand.

My limited speaking ability also impeded my interactionswith participants outside of group, particularly in the beginning.

Before and after group was a time when participants visited witheach other, problem-solved, and so on. As people entered theroom, we always greeted each other. I would sit and listen to theconversations and participate by nodding my head and saying,Hmmm. This did not provide the foundation for forming rela-tionships. As the project progressed, our interactions improved.Those of us with limited linguistic skills worked together to com-municate our ideas, and those who were, to varying degrees,bilingual translated when necessary. Participants children alsoassisted in the communication, helping me with my Spanish andtranslating fortheir mothers. Some of themore proficient English-speaking participants spoke to me in English.

Another personal factor facilitated my relationships with thewomen. Occasionally, my schedule required me to bring my 1-year-old son to group. In Mexican culture, children are veryimportant. My son was immediately brought into the fold; all the




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women and their children wanted to hold and care for him. My

sonis Chicano, and participants were concerned he was not hear-ing Spanish at home, so whenever he came to group, they wouldsing and talk with him in Spanish. Our common experience ofmotherhood created a natural topic of conversation and a com-mon reference point in our lives.

All the research interviews were done throughtranslators whowere also immigrant Mexican women. This common set of refer-ences created a level of connection and familiarity between thepaired women. I have been told by participants that having thiscommon bond made them more comfortable telling their storiesto a stranger. But on occasion, it created a dynamic in which I feltas if I was on the periphery of the interaction, only moving closerto the center to pose questions and then receding to the back-ground to eavesdrop on a conversation in which I was supposedto be a participant.This dynamicwasrecognized by thetranslatoras well. Analysis of the interaction revealed that as she translateda participants story (which was done in first person), she some-times felt that the violence was also part of her own life; she couldfeel it moving through her. It was during these times, when shefelta deeper level of connection with theparticipant, that I experi-enced being on the periphery. This not only pointed out how lin-guistic ability and cultural knowledge can shape the interactionsbetween interviewer, translator, and interviewee, it also is an

example of the emotional responses that can arise from workingwith violence survivors. In reflecting together on these feelings,we changed the translators rotation schedule and did moredebriefing after interviews (Campbell, 2002).

During the first part of the project, I met with existing supportgroups to facilitate discussions of whatsafetymeant to them andthe pictures we might take to express the experiences andfeelingswed had over the previous week. We spoke about who typicallytook photographs in their family and when photographs aretaken. We shared how it felt to view the photographs taken at rit-ual occasions such as weddings, christenings, and birthday par-ties. We discussed the violence in their lives as they grew up.

In the context of these discussions, we talked a lot about themetaphors we could use to depict our feelings, experiences, loca-tions, and relationships. For example, in a discussion about therhythms of abuse,a woman whose batterer frequently abused her




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when he came home drunk late at night saidshe would depict the

cycle of abuse and her feelings about the impending violence byphotographing her alarm clock. At night she lay in bed watchingtime go by, anxious about thehourher husband would return andthe abuse might begin. Another woman said her husband onlybeat her on the weekends. To depict this she would take a pictureof a calendar with every weekend xd out to indicate when thebattering occurred. She then talked about how her feelings of anx-iety and fear grew as the weekend drew near.

After our initial discussions during the first few weeks, thegroup decided they were ready to take photographs. Prior togiving group members cameras, we talked about photographyetiquette (i.e., respect for others privacy and rights). I alsoemphasized that participants should not place themselvesin danger to take a photograph. I then gave the participantstheir disposable cameras and asked them to photographpersons, places, and objects that represent the continuums ofcomfort-discomfort, happiness-sadness, safety-danger, security-vulnerability, serenity-anxiety, protection-exposure, strength-weakness, and love-hate. For the next 4 to 5 weeks, participantstook five to seven pictures per week. Each week women talkedabout the photos they took that week and what they representedfor them. For each photograph, we talked about how they choseto take the picture, how they categorized the photo on a safety-

danger continuum (i.e., the range of experiences and feelingsfrom a perception of safety to danger that women experience intheir everyday lives. These concepts were not predetermined inthe study plan, but defined by participants; they are fluid, notstatic). We also talked about the photographs they didnt take andwhy. Participants were free to not discuss with group membersany or all photographs they had taken that week. Some womenchose not to talk about some of their photos throughout theproject.

What became evident during these discussions was that thephotographs conveyed the complexity of the womens lives. Sev-eral women had taken similar photographs, and even if they had

not, many noted that others photographs represented an aspectof their own lives.

Examining the photographs women took and listening tothe talk that accompanied each photo suggests that the photo-




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graphic process, the photographs, discussions about the photo-graphs, and narration about the photographs are tools for self-exploration, reflection, and analysis of the violence in their livesand individual change. For example, the photograph above of anempty table was taken by Jenny.1 She was 29 years old.

She wrote,

Esta es lamesa de micomedor y tomesta fotoporque la mesa esta vaca yyo siento que aunque estoy con mis hijos la siento vaca pues no hayarmona familiar que pienso es lo ms importante.[This is the dinningroom table and I took this picture because the table is empty and Ifeel that although I am with my children, I feel that it is empty

because there is no family harmony, which I think is the mostimportant thing.]

The image and narrative represent Jennys concept of family: ahusband and wife who love each other and their children. Food,and eating together, are important family activities. Part of beinga mother and wife, of caring for her family, is preparing the food.

Her concept of family is fractured.The next photograph was taken byMaria.She was 38years old.

It is a picture of her bathroom door.She wrote,




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Esta es la puerta de mi bao. Me siento segura aqu porque esta puertatiene dosseguros y asme sientomssegura porque lasotraspuertas nadams tienen un seguro y mi pareja las botaba con un cuchillo y me dabamucho miedo.[This is my bathroom door. I feel safe here because




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thisdoorhastwo locks and the other doors onlyhaveone. Mypart-

ner picked open the locks with a knife and I was very scared.]

This photo makes apparent how fluid safe space can be. Mariachose the bathroom as a safe place because it has more locks thanthe other doors. As she notes, locks can easily be broken; hersafety evaporates when he decides to enter.

PHASE 2: THE PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS

In the second phase of the project, participants were invited tocreate a photography exhibit of their images and narratives. The

purposeof theexhibit was to give publicvoice to the participantsexperiences and, in so doing, educate the community about howit feels to live in a violent and abusive relationship. Women chosewhich photographs would appear in the exhibit and how muchanonymitytheywanted.Thegallery exhibits of participantspho-tos and accompanying narratives are the medium for communityeducation, and thus become a catalyst for social change. Partici-pants embraced the concept as fully integral to the project andbecame actively involved in fleshing out the concept of the exhibitand its execution.

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS AS COMMUNITY EDUCATION

Exhibits have been housed in the community and are open andaccessible to the public. Each opening has been accompanied by apublic community education event. The exhibits have been heldata social service agency, theMexican consulate, a caf, and a con-ference. Efforts were made to widelypublicizethe events throughsuch avenues as sending invitations to all the domestic violenceservice agencies in the metro area, and announcements in allSpanish- and English-language area newspapers and entertain-ment guides. Having one exhibit at the Mexican consulate gavehigh level official recognition of battered womens situations andwas empowering to the women. It also brought the exhibit to a

much broader audience. For example, persons waiting in line atthe consulate for visas and other documents were taken in groupsto view the exhibit. Thus, at least 1,000 people viewed the exhibitover the 2-month period it was on display.




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Viewers of the exhibit not only learned about the lives of

women who have been or are battered, they also learned abouttheir own stereotypes and assumptions about battered womenand Mexican immigrant women. The cultural images of batteredwoman as victim, a person without agency, someone who is notus, are challenged by the images and stories of the participants.The images also shatter stereotypes of Mexican immigrantwomen as simply passive victims of machismo, locked into tradi-tional gender roles. Instead, we are presented with the multi-dimensionality of womens lives, their strengths and their strug-gles. They are women with agency who put themselves in thepublic eye to create change.

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITS AND THE PERSONAL

EMPOWERMENT OF GROUP MEMBERS

As noted above, the first act of empowerment occurred whenthe participants embraced the exhibit and shaped its definitionand execution. It became a representation of their lives. All of theproject participants chose to be part of the exhibits. They alsoagreedto be part ofa travelingphotography exhibit. They wantedto participate in the exhibits because they hoped their storieswould help other women see that they had options in life. Thenames the groups gave to their exhibits convey this: Sueos yRealidadesDreams and Realities and De la Obscuridad a LaLuzFrom Obscurity to Light.

In the group discussions about the exhibit and levels of ano-nymity, the members talked about the feelings of vulnerabilityand shame they had about going public. We also talked about therisk to themselves of exposing the batterer to the community assomeone who abuses his wife. The women decided that if a manwas out there abusing women, they were not going to keep silentabout it; they were going to tell people what it was like to beabused by him. Totally unexpected by either the agency staff orme, the women decided they wanted to have a group photographand statement at the beginning of the exhibit, and their names or

initials to appear below their photographs. They wanted to dothis as a way to claim the exhibit as their own and personalizetheir stories. Two women appeared on television, and some par-ticipated in a call-in show on a Spanish-language radio station




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about battering. The majority of women attended the exhibit

openings, which wasanother level of exposing themselves. View-ers could identify and locate the participants among the crowds.They could approach them and ask questions or make commentsabout the exhibit or thewomens lives. Many women did not waitto be approached; they engaged the viewers as they viewed theirphotographs, identifying themselves as the photographers.

The decision to go public on so many levels reflects changes intheir perceptions of self. It suggests that the process was empow-ering. However, empowerment is a process that is itself fluid anddiscontinuous. As with all personal journeys, these decisionswere difficult to make, and many women were insecure abouttheir decisions. Examples of these feelings appeared in the sup-port group session the day before one of the exhibits opened,where the women talked about how nervous they were about theexhibit and about displaying their lives out in public for all to see.This same group retreated to a corner of the exhibit room andstayed there for much of the opening. When I asked them whythey were there, they told me they felt ashamed. They told methey felt that people must be looking at them and thinking howstupid they were to be living in a battering relationship. I encour-aged them to listen to the responses of viewers and to read theresponse book. A few women were brave enough to do this. Onewoman sent her adult daughter to listen to peoples responses to

the photographs. After overhearing remarks about howpowerfulthe photographs were, how brave the women were to be part ofthis exhibit, how they respected what they had done, and howthey wanted to bring others to view the exhibit, the women toldme they felt they had made the right decision in agreeing toparticipate.

One woman did not attend the public event for the exhibit atthe Mexican consulate. About a week later, she called the facilita-tor in the middle of the night and said she was being beaten andneeded to get out. She then calledthepolice. The next day, she metthe facilitator at the consulate, a familiar landmark, to go to courtand get a temporary restraining order. While the woman was

waiting for the facilitator, she decided to view the exhibit. Afterviewing several womens photographs and reading their narra-tives she got to her own. Atfirst, she didnt recognize that thepho-tographs were hers. As she studied them, she realized they were




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hers, and that she was like everyone else in the show: She was

abused. When the facilitator arrived, they talked about her reac-tion to the exhibit. That afternoon, several women were going tobe on a call-in show about domestic violence. She asked if shecould participate. That day, she went from a position of semi-denial about her abuse to another level of increased exposureabout this abuse.

To date, no women have asked to remove their photographsfrom future exhibits or change their levels of disclosure to thepublic.

PHASE 3: THE RESEARCH

The third part of the project is the research component. All par-ticipants were invited to participate in an in-depth life historyinterview about the violence in their lives and their safekeepingstrategies. I chose thelife historyapproach because it providesthebest means to gather information on womens backgrounds, feel-ings, and experiences, particularly when exploring informationabout difficult situations (Marshall & Rossman, 1989; Mishler,1986; Richie, 1996; Watson & Watson-Franke,1985).Theinterviewwas based on the photographs each woman took and any otherphotographs important to her story.

In addition to the interview, with permission of group mem-

bers, I documented the project (i.e., womens photographs, sup-port group discussions, individual in-depth interviews, creatingthe community exhibit, and the viewers response to the exhibit)by keeping copies of selected participant photographs, tape-recording support group discussions and individual interviews,and keeping field notes on the project.

Using the grounded theory method of interpretation, I did aninitial coding of the narratives that participants wrote to explicatetheir photographs (Charmaz, 1983). I developed these codes bysorting responses and accompanying photographs according tothemes that emerged from the data. The purpose of these codes isto label, separate, and organize the data. As I continue my analy-sis, these categories may change, becoming sharpened, elimi-nated, or collapsed into one another. Avery preliminary analysisof the data suggests that the following categories can be devel-oped from the photographic and narrative patterns: safety strate-




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gies, zones of violence, representations of the forms of abuse, sub-

jectivity of abuse, support systems, family, construction of genderidentity, religion, immigration,andlife changes. Notethat thecat-egories are notmutuallyexclusive. This reflectsboth thecomplex-ity of womens lives and the preliminary nature of the analysis.

Participants photographed safety strategies, which includedtheir zones of safety, such as the bathroom and bedrooms wherethey sought refuge from thebattering,and lookout poststo watchfor signs of impendingviolence, suchasa chair a participant sat inthat provided her a clear vantage point from which to see all thedoors and rooms of the house. Others documented preparationsfor leaving, such as one womansphotograph of her grabbing hercoat and keys that always hung at the back door for easy escape.They also photographed zones of violence, such as the kitchen, orthe house where a participant and her husband lived when thebattering first began. Women often used metaphorical images toexpress the feelings they hadlivinginan abusive relationship. Forexample, one survivor took a picture ofa kite flying asa metaphorfor the freedom she desired while in the relationship. Placing her-self as the kite, she wished someone would cut the kite string andallow her to fly away, to be free. Instead, her husband had controlof the string, controlling her movements. All the women photo-graphed their support groups as key persons in their support sys-tem. To indicate a change in their lives, women took pictures of

educational institutions,hair salons,and the smiling faces of theirchildren.

LIMITATIONS AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

Taking the Safety Frames Project from design to implementa-tion gave me an appreciationandinsight into methodological andprocess issues I did not previously have. Drawing on my ownexperiences and the work of others, I have identified some poten-tial limitations and other methodological and process consider-ations that have shaped how this project unfolded.

SUSTAINING CHANGE

An indication of success in a project involving individual andsocial action is sustainability of change. On an individual level, a




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approval of the project may necessitate an ongoing dialogue with

IRB members to educate them about the methods being used.

CHOOSING PROJECT SITES

In my experience, groups of shelter residents had lower levelsof participation than groups of participants who did not live inshelters. Discussions with shelter resident participants revealedthat the project was not a priority in their lives. They had toomany responsibilities and decisions to make (e.g., to remain orleave the shelter, to separate or return to their partners, findingwork, caringforchildren, building support systems, dealing withtheir immigration status), and they had no remaining emotionalor physical energy to devote to anything else. This raises severalquestions: Can the project be modified to better meet their needs?If so, how? If the project can be modified, should it be, or is thisproject better suited for nonshelter residents?

EMOTIONAL TOLL

Many researchers have written about the emotional toll theyexperience working with violence survivors (see Alexander et al.,1989; Campbell, 2002; Kelly, 1988; M. D. Schwartz, 1997; Stanko,1997). Those who do this work are familiar with these experi-ences. In all my years working in this field, I never experiencedsuch pain and exhilaration of working with survivors as I didwith this project. Providingoneself with ways to debrief is impor-tant and indeed a crucial part of adopting a self-reflexive stance inresearch.

CONCLUSION

I began the Framing Safety Project with the enthusiasm of anovice, excited about working with visualmedia,notanticipatingthe difficulties of dealing with the IRB, soliciting donations, ormounting a professional photography exhibit. When we mount-ed the first exhibit, I realized the power of the project had sur-passed my dreams. As you walk through the exhibit, you can feelthe power of womens voices emanating from the images andtext. You can experience the impact of the photographs as you lis-




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ten to people comment about the exhibit. You can feel the power

and pride of the participants as they tour the exhibit they created.Even with the limited dissemination of an analysis through tra-ditional venues, this project has been a successful method forworking with battered women. All theprojects goals were met tovarying and sometimes significant degrees, resulting from theworkshops themselves and the exhibits: providing participants amedium for self-exploration, enabling women to identify theworkthey dotokeepsafe, empoweringwomen to make decisionsand take action, and educating the community. Further analysisand dissemination will expand the impact of the research to addi-tional audiences, including advocates, scholars, and policy-makers.

As I continue the project, I will expand participant groups toinclude same-sex couples and persons of other racial and ethnicgroups and nationalities. I also plan to work with women in Mex-ico who are survivors of domestic violence. Comparison of thephotographs and narratives of Mexican immigrant women in theUnited States to those of women in Mexico to see how immigra-tion informs their constructions of safety isplanned. If thepatterncontinues, each additional group that participates in the projectwill have an opportunity to reflect on and educate others aboutthe abuse in their lives. Hopefully, this will take us a step closer tosecuring the human right of all women to live free of violence.

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Lisa Frohmann is an associate professor in the department of criminal justice atthe University of IllinoisChicago. Her areas of specialization include violenceagainst women; race, class, gender and the law; social construction of legalities;and qualitative and visual methodologies.


the framing safety project

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