Donna Ferrato was born 5 June 1949 in Massachusetts and grew up in Ohio. Ferrato graduated Laurel School in Shaker Heights Ohio in 1968, she has since been recognised as one of the schools distinguished Alumina. In 1975 Donna began hitchhiking across the USA and began photography, working odd jobs along the way. She studied photography at The Art institute. In 79’ she moved to New York and began photographing in sex clubs and nightclubs. There was a vibrant nightclub scene, in establishments like Studio 54, Mudd Club and the famous swingers club Plato’s Retreat. It was here she met ‘Garth and Lisa’ a prominent swinging couple. She immersed herself in their lifestyle, moving onto their mansion. She photographed the wild parties they held as well as the more benign family moments. She wanted to know these people as a member of their own family. They became friends. Drug use was prevalent. She witnessed domestic violence while with the couple and this greatly impacted her. She decided to get these images published, however the media were reluctant to publish something so raw. When she took the photos to Japanese Playboy, they refused to publish them. "They were horrified and didn't want to have anything to do with the story," She decided to publish her own book.

​

Ferrato travelled across the USA photographing domestic violence, riding in police cars, sleeping in shelters, and staying in the homes of battered women  Her book ‘living with the enemy’ (aperture) was published in 1991, went into four printings, alongside lecturers and exhibitions across the world. It sparked international discussion on sexual violence and women’s rights. In 2014 she launched a campaign called ‘I am unbeatable’ to expose, document and prevent domestic violence against women and children through the real stories of those involved. While her work has been well received, and carries weight for helping survivors and to raise funds for charities who work with women leaving abusing relationships or campaigning to end abusive relationships. I would argue that domestic violence is still a prevalent as it was in the 70’s.

She has contributed to almost every major news publication in the United States and her photographs have appeared in nearly five hundred solo exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide. She has been a member of the board of directors for the W. Eugene Smith Fund, a grant organisation who offers awards to photographers and has been a recipient of an award. She was also the president and founder of the non-profit Domestic Abuse Awareness Project, has received numerous accolades and awards for her work and written numerous books. 

​

Her work is one of a few artists who directly use their practice to advocate for survivors of domestic violence and use their work to highlight it. 

​

Dorothea Lange

​

Lange was born in Hoboken, New Jersey. Lange's father abandoned the family when she was 12 years old. Later she dropped her father's family name and assumed her mother's maiden name. At age seven she had contracted polio, which left her with a weakened right leg and a permanent limp. "It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me, and humiliated me," Lange once said of her altered gait. "I've never gotten over it, and I am aware of the force and power of it.

​

Lange graduated from the Wadleigh High School for Girls, New York City, she had already decided that she would become a photographer. She began her study of photography at Columbia University. In 1918, she left New York with a female friend intending to travel the world, but her 

Lange's early studio work mostly involved shooting portrait photographs of the social elite in San Francisco. At the onset of the Great Depression, she began street photography. Lange developed personal techniques of talking with her subjects while working, putting them at ease and enabling her to document pertinent remarks to accompany the photography. The titles and annotations often revealed personal information about her subjects. 

In 1952, Lange co-founded the photography magazine Aperture. In the mid-1950s, Life magazine commissioned Lange and Pirkle Jones to shoot a documentary about the death of the town of Monticello, California, and the subsequent displacement of its residents by the damming of Putah Creek to form Lake Berryessa. After Life decided not run the piece, Lange devoted an entire issue of Aperture to the work. The collection was shown at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1960.

​

​

​

​

​

​