Personal statement by photographer Sina NIEMEYER
"You taught me how to be a butterfly only so you could break my wings. (...) First and foremost, it was about understanding and coming to terms with what actually happened. What I did is called therapeutic photography. I didn't know the method at the time; I only encountered it in 2018 at the Perugia Social Photo Fest, to which I was invited with my book. Therapeutic photography is a strategy that involves, among other things, taking pictures out of a flashback in order to overcome one's paralysis and transform it into something new. It was only through the book that I realized how strongly my depression and my phasically self-destructive behavior were connected to the abuse. And I wanted to feel myself again, my feelings, my body; it was about self-empowerment, about empowerment." (freely transated, © Sina NIEMEYER)
Background information
"The artist photo volume 'Für mich' by Sina NIEMEYER is the artist’s autobiographic story of sexual abuse. This project was born out of the necessity to understand and come to terms with what had happened to her as a pre-adolescent girl. To ultimately get to a place of forgiveness, in order to be able to close a chapter that hurt her so much, and influenced how she grew up to become a young woman. When every 3rd woman has or will experience physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in her life, then there is something wrong with society. It is our responsibility that a change happens. As a society we must take care of our children, we must make sure that, if something wrong happens to them, they have a place to go, that they can talk to someone and that they are taken seriously by doing so, that it does not take up to 8 attempts before a child is heard. And we must not only make it easier for children and women, but also for the potential abusers, to protect themselves and others, to recognise their wrong longings early enough and to find help more easily. Sina’s and our hope is that this book, 'Für mich', will start a conversation. 'Für mich' is the winner project of the Perugia Social Photo Fest call for entry.
Content
With photography as therapy, the photo volume 'Für Mich' by Sina NIEMEYER itself is meant to serve as a tool for social change. It is small in size, but very dense in content. It is not a book with pretty pictures, it is not meant as an accusation of one specific person, it addresses the multiple and contradicting emotions a sexually abused person feels, where there is no clear black and white, but with all the shades of grey. The books are hand finished and bound." (© Ceiba, 2018)
About German photographer, Sina NIEMEYER
Photo books by Sina NIEMEYER
- Book design
- Eva KUNZ
- Format
- Pb. (no dust jacket, as issued), 14 x 19 x 1 cm., 96 pp., color ills., 250 gr., Texts language: English, with translations to German, Italian, French and Spanish,