Trafficking survivors are ‘taking the spotlight’
‘This project shows the beauty in us — that we’re beautiful, good people. It’s not just what you see when you drive down the road and see a homeless woman. There’s more to the story.’
Mandie Matthews
survivor of human trafficking
Prostitutes tend to have a bad image, one where others think they’re terrible people who do terrible things — by choice.
At least that’s been the experience of Mandie Matthews, a survivor of human trafficking.
“People think that we chose this life, that we’re dirty, disgusting women,” Matthews said.
A portrait project by a local photographer involving Matthews and five other human trafficking survivors, however, aims to help change that.
“This project shows the beauty in us — that we’re beautiful, good people,” Matthews said. “It’s not just what you see when you drive down the road and see a homeless woman. There’s more to the story.”
Portraits represent the past, present and future of trafficking survivors
Each portrait by Nick Fancher attempts to embody these women’s past, present and future, with images from different points in their lives projected onto them as he snapped pictures in his South Side studio last month.
The pieces are part of Fancher’s ongoing series that explores trauma and how to avoid being defined by it.
For her portrait, Matthews, 31, of the East Side, chose three other images to include: a Sullivant Avenue street sign, representing where she began her life of prostitution; an apartment complex building where she endured abuse from her trafficker; and a childhood home.
The end result, with the images merged on her face allowed her to focus on her whole self and not just the
ugliness of the past, she said.
“You can’t really tell what any of it is, but you see certain features on me,” Matthews said. “My eyes - they’re pretty prominent - and my hair . you just see the beauty marks and not the trauma. That stood out to me. I was owning it and it’s part of my story and my past, but it’s not who I am today.”
Nick Fancher: Surviving and photographing trauma
Fancher began looking at the concept of trauma through his work starting in 2017. His goal was to delve into what life looked like before a traumatic moment and then the fallout after it.
“You don’t see the trauma anymore,” said Fancher, 40, of Franklinton. “You see layers and shapes and color. Not any one event defines you.”
He said he’d been in therapy for years for his own experiences being physically and emotionally abused as a child, and he discovered a trauma support group that piqued his interest in the subject further.
Initially, he photographed rape survivors, a cancer patient and a woman from India who was bullied for being an immigrant. Those photos were a bit more abstract than his more recent ones.
After shelving the project for a while to work on other things — and himself — Fancher began to revisit the series last year.
He got some help from Hannah Estabrook, executive director of Sanctuary Night, a Franklinton nonprofit group that serves human trafficking survivors and women still in the cycles of prostitution. Fancher volunteers with the organization that is working to get its full-time drop-in center open later this year.
Estabrook, who has been hosting a survivor leadership group for women further along in their recovery, thought a photo shoot with Fancher would fit in nicely with other programming she’d been offering at the group’s once-a-month meetings.
“I remembered seeing Nick’s series about trauma and thinking, ‘Man, this is really empowering,’” Estabrook said. “It’s next-level stuff. These women do all sorts of work on themselves in terms of counseling, healing . and I thought this would be interesting for them.”
A safe environment: Looking at the portraits after the shoot
Walking into Fancher’s studio, Estabrook said several of the women commented on what a safe, trauma-informed space the photographer had created.
Matthews described it as peaceful with calming aesthetics and light rock music playing in the background. Plus, Fancher shared a bit about his traumatic past, allowing him to make an instant connection, she said.
Matthews said that her time at the studio was actually fun and didn’t bring up too many emotions. Choosing images from her past, prior to the shoot, was a much more difficult task.
“I had to sit there and think through: Where did I experience the most trauma? Who did it?” Matthews said. “What image best represents that?”
She found all her images online as she didn’t want to drive back to any of the places from her past, but the process was worth it, she said.
“I look so beautiful with that brick print on my face,” Matthews said, referring to the portrait that includes an image of the brick apartment complex where she experienced abuse.
Fancher said some of the women offered up images of their pimps or mugshots. Some included photos of their children.
He hopes the project, which he shared on his Instagram page, brought some closure to the women and that it impacted them as much as it did him. Some of the series can also be seen on his website, nickfancher.com.
“I know how big of a deal it was for them to get vulnerable with me,” Fancher said.
Estabrook assured him that she had a great deal of gratitude for the unique opportunity.
“These women have been the footnotes in someone else’s story for most of their life,” Estabrook said. “Now, they’re taking the spotlight. They’re owning the story in front of the camera and allowing the focus to be on ‘me.’”
Matthews thought the whole experience spoke to a larger shift in the fight against human trafficking, both in terms of an artist like Fancher wanting to highlight the problem and anyone who would view the images.
“It’s the trickle effect,” she said. “He put this out here, and people will talk about it. The community will be more aware that this stuff happens right here.”