"Even with blackened eyes, the women in Donna Ferrato's photographs look defiant, not defeated. A photojournalist and feminist activist who is best known for her documentation of domestic violence, Ferrato, 73, has also depicted women pursuing sexual pleasure, giving birth, raising children, enticing men and demonstrating in the streets. Her subject is women taking control of their bodies, and in her fiercely empathetic mission, sometimes she turns the camera on herself."
- Arthur Lubow,
The New York Times "Ferrato's photos have the ability to sear into the recesses of your mind." - Kenneth Dickerman, The Washington Post "Ferrato recognizes photography as a tool to speak truth to power." - Miss Rosen, Feature Shoot "Her haunting photographs display the harsh reality of women facing domestic violence, an often- underrepresented issue, and give an honest, vulnerable approach to the issue" - Margarita Matta, MUSÉE "The stirring photographs exhibited in Holy attest to Ferrato's ongoing philosophy as an image-maker: "My moral imperative is to be there and help people suffering in silence... to respond as a human being, to earn trust, to listen." As women's rights feel particularly imperilled and progress has faltered in a way likely to devastate the lives of so many women in the US, Holy is both a restorative act of care and a stirring siren call." - Emily Dinsdale, DAZED Photographer Donna Ferrato goes on a radical 50-year road trip across the USA as women fight for equality in the bedroom and the boardroom. Holy follows her journey from the sexual revolution of the '60s through the #metoo era of today. Holy is forged from one woman's outrage against a woman-hating world. May it anger you. Donna Ferrato's radical photographs show what women are capable of surviving. More than survive, Holy depicts women who prevail. Holy is an invitation to understand how it feels being held down by the patriarchy-what we are fighting for, what we are up against--and how we manage to maintain a sense of desire and appetite. Fighting for equality in the bedroom and the boardroom, Ferrato's journey follows the sexual revolution of the '60s through the #metoo era of today. Holy is a showcase of power. Donna's images reveal women's bodies in all their monstrous glory-even her own. May these photographs mobilize you, whether you are cis or trans, young or old, butch or femme. Human survival depends on women. Embrace your instincts, desires, brainpower, and strength. Embrace each other.
Donna Ferrato is an internationally-known documentary photographer. Her gifts for exploration, illumination, and documentation coupled with a commitment to revealing the darker sides of humanity, have made her a giant in the medium.
She has four books including
Living with the Enemy which sold over 40,000 copies, and
Love & Lust, published by Aperture. She has participated in over 500 one-woman shows and has received awards such as the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Humanistic Photography (1987), the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism (2003), and the Gender Fairness Award from the New York State Supreme Court Judges (2009).
Ferrato founded a non-profit called Domestic Abuse Awareness which she ran for over a decade and in 2014 launched a campaign called I Am Unbeatable, which features women who have left their abusers. In 2016,
TIME magazine announced her photograph of a woman being hit by her husband (1982) as one of the "100 Most Influential Photographs of All Time."
Her new book,
HOLY, showcases Ferrato's fierce devotion to uncovering the complicated truth about women's lives. In Holy, Ferrato breaks with the traditional documentary approach. Here she embraces the Gonzo method, a non-objective journalism, where documentation, opinion and immersion come together to tell her story over six decades.
