Wildflower
(ongoing)

Content Warning: This essay includes discussion of rape and its aftermath.

The prevalence of sexual assault is often presented through statistics: every 68 seconds an American is sexually assaulted. Every 9 minutes, that victim is a child. 1 out of 6 women are victims of rape. Meanwhile, only 25 of every 1000 reported perpetrators end up in prison. These statistics remind us constantly of the dangers and the lack of justice, but what do these numbers really tell us about the lives forever altered by such a devastating event?

Fueled by my own experiences of victim blaming and shaming, I started documenting my journey a month after being raped. This body of work, Wildflower, explores life after trauma through paired images and journal entries.

I always wonder what would have happened had I known a story like mine. Maybe, I could’ve ended my cycle of sexual violence sooner.

Photographs and writing featured on CNN and NPR