Living with the Enemy

Aging, Spring, 1996

Living with the Enemy is a book of black and white photographs of battered women and their violent husbands or boyfriends, taken by award-winning photojournalist Donna Ferrato of New York City. The photographs are accompanied by text drawn from Ferrato's own interviews with battered women, violent men, and activists, and from interviews conducted by reporters with whom she worked on domestic violence stories. To record the violence that so appalled her, Ferrato said she "hung around courtrooms and hospital emergency rooms, rode with police, sat in on batterers' therapy groups and women's self-defense classes ... lived in women's shelters and women's prisons ... and stayed in the violent homes of the very rich and the very poor..." She said the women who gave her permission to take the photographs believed "it was vitally important for others to see the nature of their problems." Although the gripping photographs are mainly of young and middle-aged women who were battered, the photos and text have a powerful message to convey to older women who have endured periods of psychological and physical abuse over many years.

The book will also be a powerful eye-opener to staff of organizations that work with older women. As the introduction by Ann Jones notes, in speaking of battered women: "Social science gives us euphemisms. 'Domestic violence.' 'Spouse abuse.' 'Partner abuse.'... 'Marital strife' ... 'Familial dysfunction.' You'll notice, however, that these terms conjure no images. Like Orwellian Newspeak, they aim to keep us from seeing what's what ... Rather, these terms whisper of insubstantial numbers and vague 'social problems' affecting (we must assume) not real individual women but relationships' and 'families,' mostly in other people's neighborhoods... Ferrato's camera, on the other hand, sees what domestic violence looks like. Her photographs reveal the simple facts that the jargon is meant to hide."

Living With the Enemy explores the hurt, shame, and anger of women, children, and their abusers and includes the story behind each image, as well as factual information on domestic violence in America.

The 175-page book is available for $24.95, plus $5.00 shipping and handling (foreign, $8.00), NY residents add 8.25% sales tax, from APERTURE, 20 East 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10010-4463. Phone: 212-598-4205. Checks payable to "Aperture."