Donna Ferrato
Donna Ferrato | |
---|---|
Born | 5 June 1949 Waltham, Massachusetts |
Occupation | Photojournalist |
Alma mater | Garland Junior College |
Subject | domestic violence |
Website | |
donnaferrato.com |
Donna Ferrato (born 1949) is a
Ferrato has worked for Life, Time, People, The New York Times, and Mother Jones.[2] Her photographs have won various awards and have appeared in solo exhibitions in museums and galleries. She has been a member of the Executive Board of Directors for the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and was president and founder of the non-profit Domestic Abuse Awareness (501-c3).
Biography
Ferrato was born on 5 June 1949 in Waltham, Massachusetts and grew up in Lorain, Ohio. Her father, Peter John Ferrato, was a vascular chest surgeon who met his wife, Ann O'Mally, while interning at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. The couple had three children: Donna Ferrato, Peter (Pizzo) Ferrato, and Louis T. Ferrato. Donna Ferrato graduated from the Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio in 1968. She was recognized in 1992 as one of the Laurel School's Distinguished Alumna.[3] Ferrato went on to attend Garland Junior College in Boston, where she met and married Harvard graduate Mark Webb.[4]
In 1971, Ferrato and Webb moved to San Francisco, where Ferrato worked as a legal secretary. In 1975, Ferrato and Webb divorced, and Ferrato began photographing and hitchhiking across the United States. In San Francisco, she worked odd jobs, including a stint as the camera girl at the Hilton Hotel. She studied photography at
In 1977, Ferrato met artist
Living With the Enemy
In 1979, Ferrato moved to
For the next decade, Ferrato travelled across the country photographing domestic violence, riding in police cars, sleeping in shelters, and staying in the homes of battered women. Her work led to the publication of Living With the Enemy (Aperture Foundation, 1991), an exposé of the hidden world of domestic violence. The New York Times wrote, "Living with the Enemy is both harrowing and moving. With their shocking immediacy, these photographs offer the kind of urgent call to action provided by all great documentary photographs."[6] Living With the Enemy went into four printings, and, alongside exhibitions and lectures around the world, sparked a national discussion on sexual violence and women’s rights.[7] In 2011, Ferrato launched the I Am Unbeatable campaign, which aims to expose, document, and raise awareness of domestic violence by creating an archive of stories, photographs, and video narratives.[8][9][10]
In 1991 Ferrato was the highest bidder at an auction to have tea with the new
Alongside her work with domestic violence, Ferrato continued to photograph sex clubs, swingers' events, and other forms of sexual experimentation and lovemaking. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ferrato published stories with The Philadelphia Inquirer and Stern on the swingers' group Lifestyles, and in 2008, she worked with journalist Claudia Glenn Dowling filming group marriages as part of the Oxygen series "Sex Lives on Videotape." In 2004, she published her third book, Love & Lust, a look at human intimacy. In 2008, she was featured in American Swing, a documentary chronicling the story of Plato's Retreat and Larry Levenson from the mid-1970s to late-1980s.
Philip Jones Griffiths
Ferrato met
Ferrato and Griffiths had one daughter, who shares a birthdate of 18 February with her father.[13]
Tribeca
Ferrato's most recent work focuses on the spirit and evolution of
In 2011, Ferrato published the book Tribeca: 9/11/01-9/11/11, about the area in the decade after the September 11 attacks.
Awards
- 1985: W. Eugene Smith Grant, W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund.[15]
- Kodak Crystal Eagle for Courage in Journalism.[16]
- Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Outstanding Coverage of the Problems of the Disadvantaged.[16]
- International Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award.[2]
- 2002: Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO[2][17]
- Tribeca Film Festival Award (2008)[18]
- Look3 INsight Artist of the Year.[19]
In 2008, the City of New York proclaimed 30 October "Donna Ferrato Appreciation Day" for her "continued service as an example of advocacy and activism and as a citizen that the city is proud to call one of its own."
Publications
Publications by Ferrato
- The Honeymoon Killers, Edizioni Il Laboratorio D'IF, 1986. With an introduction by Fred Ritchin.
- Living With the Enemy, ISBN 978-0893814809. With an introduction by Ann Jones.
- Amore, Federico Motta Editore, 2001. Translated by Katia Bagnoli.
- Love & Lust, Aperture Foundation, 2004. Edited by Melissa Harris. ISBN 978-1931788335
- Tribeca 9/11/01-9/11/11, 2011.
- Holy. Brooklyn:
Publications with contributions by Ferrato
- Facing Change: Documenting America. Library of Congress.
References
- ISBN 978-0-7619-2957-4.
- ^ a b c Donna Ferrato: 1993 Courage In Journalism Award
- ^ "Laurel School: Distinguished Alumna Recipients". Archived from the original on 29 March 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
- ^ ISBN 978-1931788335.
- ^ I Am Unbeatable: Donna Ferrato’s Commitment to Abused Women
- ^ New York Times review of Living With the Enemy
- ^ Jeltsen, Melissa (6 June 2016). "Behind The Photos That Changed How America Saw Domestic Violence". HuffPost. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
- ^ I Am Unbeatable
- ^ a b The New York Times Lens Blog: Helping the People Beyond the Pain
- ^ The New York Times Lens Blog: Leaving Abuse Behind
- ^ "L'Oeil de la Photographie: Donna Ferrato". Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
- ^ Philip Jones Griffiths: The Magnificent One
- ^ Fotoevidence: Interview with Donna Ferrato Archived 7 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Donna Ferrato Photography , BOOKS". DONNA FERRATO PHOTOGRAPHY. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
- ^ W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund 1985 Recipient: Donna Ferrato
- ^ ISBN 978-0893814809.
- ^ "Missouri Honor Medal Winners: Individuals". Missouri School of Journalism. Retrieved 16 November 2015.
- ^ 2008 Tribeca Film Festival Artists Awards Program
- ^ a b "Look3: Donna Ferrato, INsight Artist 2012". Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
- ^ "'We need to be pushy': women's rights and photography". The Guardian. 25 November 2020. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
- ^ "Donna Ferrato's images of 'battered women, activists, migrant workers, and more' are a call-to-action for women". Creative Boom. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
- ^ "Donna Ferrato's Radical, Rage-Fuelled Portraits of Womanhood". AnOther. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.