Inna, the Cutter

This is Inna, who says her father beats her and who expresses her

unhappiness by ritually mutilating her arms by cutting them, but no

more than skin deep -- a fairly common form of self-mutiliation that

expresses a form of self-hate and self-loathing, but also expresses

some hope or doubt about that self-loathing. Your ratings and

comments are requested and are most welcome. If you rate harshly or

very critically, please submit a helpful and constructive

comment/Please share your superior knowledge to help improve my

photography. (Please keep in mind this is submitted in

the 'documentary' category when rating) Thanks! Enjoy . . . or at

least be enlightened! John

Very sad

Like the symbol of the crucifix, this is an image of beauty overlaid with tragedy. I pray she is currently getting the help she is crying out for.

 

The only photographic suggestion is to see it in black and white for comparison.

 

 

This photo has a 'Documentary' one had its aesthetic value, it is easy to construct a history behind. This is the rol of Documentary Photo.

 

Yes it is a sad photo, this photo will make people think.

 

This is indeed very, very sad. This young woman is 18, and has apparently turned to prostitution (not with me). I saw her arms and understood that my job was to document what I saw.

 

It seems that almost everything in life I see (almost everything I emphasize) can be turned into some sort of photo opportunity (but not in the Presidential Photo Opportunity sense of course).

 

Here poor Inna looks just as sad as she presented herself, although she tried to look 'happy, attractive, and sexy' but she just wasn't up to it and I understood that.

 

Wow, was all I could say when I saw her arms, which she volunteered to me.

 

I don't speak her language, Russian, very well, but she demonstrated with her hands, and sounds (the equivalent of 'Pow') and showing a fist into her face with the name 'papa' just exactly what she was complaining of.

 

Tony Soprano in the HBO Television Series 'The Sopranos' was drawn to a young strip teaser who had such self-mutilating behavior, and tried to counsel her out of it.

 

One of his 'mob buddies' essentially beat the young woman to death one (night?) and I recall Soprano and company had to dispose of the body, then in later episodes, the perpetrator was called up to be a 'made man', and Soprano's distate for him was evident, despite the 'family aspect of the 'Mafia' -- stemming from his attraction for that young woman stripper.

 

But I had no attraction for young Inna, who looked pretty young, but I saw her ID which proved her age -- she was just short, which gave the appearance of youth. Ukrainians who viewed this photo today correctly guessed her age at 18-20, so they trump the guess of this much older man.

 

Sad, Sad, Sad.

Regrettably young Inna is not only NOT getting any therapy, but probably still is getting abused.

 

I think she lives on the streets, and if she goes home she gets struck.

 

It was -20 Celsius this evening (20th) in Odessa, (minus 35 Celsius in Moscow, Russia forecast I am told) so there's either freezing to death or going home if one cannot find friends to crash with.

 

I know nothing about young Inna except for 40 minutes spent with her, communicating with her and a few photos, then gave her a little money and sent her on her way (money really was charity, but I didn't want to just GIVE her charity and made her appear to 'earn' it as a photomodel . . . which really was a ruse, since I learned her story, and didn't want (or need) her prostitution 'services'.

 

She was actually delighted to be photographed -- I think it made her feel important.

 

Later, other women her age stopped me on the street in Odessa, asking to be photographed, but I declined. Bad practice to bring anyone to a private apartment with cameras (street people)-- pretty soon there'll be the 'word out' and despite very heavy security locks, somebody'll try something foolish or a boyfriend or Mafia, etc., will cause very big trouble and my safety will be in jeopardy.

 

That's one reason to be a 'street' photographer, instead of a studio photographer of people one meets on the street in such a poor country, unless one owns a studio as a business -- certainly not in a home.

 

Another, more prominent reason is that unless I had no reason to take photographs of just 'attractive' young women who were not superbeautiful in a land of gorgeous women when $50 bucks will buy an agency model for 6 hours a day who will pose without a complaint in a studio for 6 hours and be cover girl beautiful.

 

(Yes, it's true, Ukraine is a poor country, full of very beautiful young women -- who fill up on potatoes at around 35 and never unfill, for the most part, just as in most of Russia, although Russia around Moscow is changing.

 

In fact a Moscow newspaper not long ago wrote about the famous 'Metro Babes' -- 'Where Have All the Babes Gone?' from the famed Metro and concluded that a hard life and a diet of carbs caused premature destruction of terrific good looks by bout 35 years old of some of the world's most beautiful women (but they stay beautiful when they come to America).

 

(They also concluded that it wasn't American husbands swiping the Russian brides that was causing them to vanish, my previous efforts notwithstanding -- see my single photo folder -- mostly color)

 

As to B&W, I'll probably try it, (in fact I certaily will, but the choice of color here was propitious because of the bluishness of the background and the overall 'coldness' of the reflected flash from the blue wall and ceiling caused this photo to have photographically a fortuitous 'cold tone' to it that could not have been expected but is most desirable 'aesthetically' (in a technical sense) for such a 'sad' documentary photo.

 

Moreover, the color shows off the contrast between the 'red' of the cuts and the 'bluishness of her skin, which suggests 'bruising' even though I am not sure she actually was bruised where it suggests.

 

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

 

John

The above comments also are directed at you, even though you weren't named. I specifically want to mention you by name for pointing out the role of the documentary photo, which is unheralded on Photo.net -- in fact I can't really remember a documentary photo on Photo.net that had any impact at all (my memory), and I posted this 'just because' I wanted to share, figuring 'go figure', somebody'll be educated, maybe.

 

John

I expected this would be a 'most unpopular' photo and would 'reap the whirlwind' of horrible ratings, with a string of 3/3s and the raters again have surprised me.

 

I just looked at the ratings and have been pleasantly surprised.

 

It just goes to show you that if you go with your gut and don't give a good gol-darn about ratings (as I), and post what you feel needs to be shown, or that you want to show, you just may be rewarded in the most unusual way.

 

Of course, not all ratings are high, but I didn't figure this photo would even garner any ratings at all, and that it was a 'vanity' photo, for my own ego in posting -- to share without any hope of being 'recognized'.

 

Thanks, raters, for recognizing that not all photos of merit need be 'pretty' if they are 'consructed' with care.

 

John

Yes a very sad image John, but good on you for respectfully documenting the tragedy. I wouldn't know first hand how it feels to be immersed in such things, and I wouldn't know if I would have the guts to photograph something so horrific without getting emotionally involved. Personally my heart goes out to this girl and of course first thing you want to do is help her. But sometimes, I guess, issues are too deep to fully understand... and too deep to fix, as a visitor. Trying to help might even make things worse, like you mentioned.

 

I can relate in a way (though still, not first hand thankfully) to what she's going through. Two people have passed through my life suffering from this type of self-loathing self-inflicting condition brought on by parental neglect and abuse. It's a very strange mentality these kids take on... As an outsider looking in I never understand how they can do such things to themselves, and why they don't seek the help they so desperately need.

 

Upon reflection though, I think kids are insecure and need the physical presence of their parents... as a foundation for life. Sometimes unfortunately this entails a great deal of unnecessary, inhumane abuse which is very sad. Their lives spin out of control... with nothing substantial to grasp... no true love... a life in a world that seems without purpose. Deep down, however, I think the kids subconsciously hold on to HOPE. They hope for a better day, a better mood, a softer touch, a kinder voice... perhaps the day, mood, touch, or voice they remember from times past. They always seem to carry on in the face of adversity (without choice, they withstand incredible abuse) and they simply persevere, for there is nothing else to do. It is hoped that things will improve... or else stay the same without worsening. They dream of a day when someone will take notice of their sorrow and reach out to them... rescue them... and in the perfect world of dreams that someone is the abusive parent.

 

Lost, confused and with no apparent way out they force blame on themselves. Almost as a punishment to self, they cut their own wrists (I will hurt myself since I can't hurt you)... get into drugs and other dangerous self-depleting things. Having said that, I think this behaviour is not without cause and purpose...

 

I do believe it is a sort of cry for help... a cry that is very seldom heard, and rarer still, candidly photographed.

Matt,

 

One word for a very lengthy expression: BRAVO.

 

John

This photo was taken in Ukraine.

 

Commentators mentioned about seeking 'help'.

 

There is no 'help' for such things in Ukraine that I know of; their medical services have fallen into disrepair, and social services are practically nonexistent with no money to pay for them. (As one young nurse I met complained, 'things were better in Brezhnev's time, then we were poor, as the homily goes, 'but our refrigerators were full' and, she also didn't have to say, the Soviet medical system was pretty high class for having emerged from serfdom after the 1917 Revolution and enduring World War II. (No matter that many doctors, even today, hardly hold a candle to your basic American doctor in terms of theory and practice, even if they trained under the Soviets -- they were eons better than what was there before and life expectancy for those who don't abuse their bodies (women mainly) is fairly high (for men who get fat, are depressed and self-medicate with alcohol, it's dismally low -- about 55 to 58 versus women who can expect at birth to live to their early '70s.

 

It's not usual to see 'old' men in Ukraine (or Russia for that matter) as alcohol and dismal prospects, 12-hour days, six or seven days a week, self-medicating with voluminous alcohol, and lots of fatty meals with their potatoes has caused a very high mortality rate among men mainly, leaving a very high gender gap with not nearly enough men to go around -- leaving the avaiilable women clamoring for the 'good' men, sometimes even scheming for the able and capable ones, or having to resign themselvs to 'raising the children and growing old lonely, which so many do that it's almost a self-description of vast numbers of Ukrainian women (and unlike American women who look pretty good after their children mature and go off to collge -- university -- the Ukrainian women often are just 'used up' and unattractive -- in general terms, and demographics have dealt those women a very harsh blow -- a future without a man.

 

(Nevertheless, there are many able and capable Ukrainian men who are very good men who are not alcoholics, capable earners, and very much in love with their wives, and I've met many of them who extol the virtues of their wonderful wives.)

 

To get Ibuprofen in a city of 2 million in Ukraine requires a doctor calling 10 pharmacies and asking if they might have it, and more complex drugs are out of the question. (But acetomenophen -- ingredient in Tylenol -- is commonly found).

 

Social services are, so far as I am aware, out of the question as a resource for such people.

 

In Odessa, there are a large number of young boys who sleep in the streets, becoming threats -- boys the Soviets used to refer to as hooligans, and they're truly criminals who'd steal if they got any chance -- all dirty and hungry, and I hear it's the same in Kiev now, but not in Dnepropetrovsk (about 2 million people), although I know in Dnepropetrovsk, one nice, smart and respectful twelve-year-old boy who lives in the streets because when he goes home his older brother uses him as a punching bag, and his aged aunt is helpless to stop it, if indeed she is capable even of recognizing it.

 

Life in Ukraine is a little tough, and the people are remarkably good for having grown up under harsh circumstances -- but for those who have family that is strong, their familes are exceptionally strong -- family keeps the social fabric together because the state cannot.

 

My personal observations backed by WHO (World Health Organization) statistical trends (paraphrased here).

 

John

Unfortunately autoagression and selfdestruction, here examplified by a poor ukranian victim in deep dispair, is implemented in mankind somehow. It will come onto all of us if we do not understand that this picture is expressing a universal problem and that there is no universe for us to escape from it. You are delivering the pictures John, and that is very good, but to make people really understand, even having them feel and experience such pain will be insufficient. They will always assume it to be an individual case and look for an individual solution, which in case is part of the problem.

I think your analysis is somewhat correct, as far as it goes, but looking at the commentary above, especially that of Matt Vardy, which is exemplary, I come to the conclusion that people always assume that such cases are particular and peculiar 'to others' until they view such a photograph and then read such commentaries.

 

Stories such as recounted by Matt and the way this is presented tend to 'personalize' such a tragic circumstance, and in some small way, to educate those who otherwise are un-understanding.

 

It's one small way in which I hope my photographs occasionally contribute to a greater good. Not all photographs have to be 'pretty' -- even though in looking at this photo 'in as much a vacuum as I can muster' I have been struck by its aesthetic qualities -- its starkness and its repeated use of the 'cold' color blue, even to suggesting that her skin has been 'beaten' (which it may or may not have been (the color perhaps having been a color correction/flash issue, in part caused by bouncing flash off blue walls).

 

Alexander, I think you are just a 'little' too pessimistic, although perhaps not too much.

 

Best wishes,

 

John

John, I look through your portfolio and I see all of these happy pictures of nice, smiling pretty people...

 

And then there is Inna. This powerful photograph will continue to haunt me for a long time.

It haunts me a little too, particularly when I wonder if someday Inna's father will learn of it . . . . which is the photojournalist's perpetual conundrum.

 

I am increasingly proud of this photo as I view and review it.

 

It's certainly not your usual Photo.net photo, and still the ratings (which I expected to be atrocious) largely recognized this photo for its 'worth' which surprised me.

 

Go figure. It's a reason to keep taking chances; raters often will surprise you.

 

You have given me more food for thought, Andre.

 

John

If you look carefully through this folder (Faces I Have Seen), there are a number of less than smiling expressions, and there are probably a number more of photos with people who will NOT be smiling.

 

Smiles are very attractive and engaging, but just photographing those can be a little dull.

 

I agree that a pretty woman with a smile is far more engaging than one without; but so far that has not been my task in life.

 

I am blessed as I photograph to view a large number of people who do smile -- in large part because I share the product digitally of the photographic process with them (I let them see their photos) and they almost always are happy with the ones I choose to share with them, and almost always totally surprised that they are of such high quality).

 

Inna, on the other hand, actually liked this photo, and even sent the word on the street that my photographic efforts were serious and worthwhile (not just an exploitive photographer after a look at some T&A -- though I certainly have plenty of male hormones too and have no objections to viewing such things or even photographing them.)

 

John (on further reflection)

If you'll pardon my very crude pun, this is a very cutting photo John - I'm amazed she allowed you to photograph her wounds - donning my armchair psychology hat, to accomdate this, I can only imagine that self harm has an element of attention seeking: this is probably a vast oversimplification and I apologise for my cluelessness in anticipation of any reproach, however, this is a truly shocking photo of something which I wish nobody ever had to put themselves through.

Due to the fact that this behaviour is a cry for help, it is also always ambivalent towards making a secret from it on one hand, and exhibiting it on the other hand, I guess. Though I am not psychologically educated.

Hi John

Hi Ben

e.a.

 

I had a mail from a nice and keen Lady telling me that my interpretation of this behavior is not right. And she is right. It is far more difficult and explanation is not so easy. There has been a lot of research on this in the last years, which you can easily review on the internet if you use the keywords: borderline syndrome cutter personality.

 

Sorry for my too fast and simplifying conclusion.

 

A Google.com search using your terms led me to this self-descriptive article by a 'borderline cutter' who suggested that cutting behavior sometimes was triggered by abuse (Inna here claims her father beat her).

 

It is a form of self-abnegation and compulsion, of course, and does nothing at all to raise self-esteem, as it is mainly reactionary.

 

Here is one link:

 

http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=810

 

I regret you'll have to cut and paste it into your browser.

 

And consider this quotation from one web site, which I consider right on point and coincident with the point I (and Alexander Z.) both were making:

 

'Favazza (1998) states, quite definitively, that ... self-mutilation is distinct from suicide. Major reviews have upheld this distinction . . . A basic understanding is that a person who truly attempts suicide seeks to end all feelings whereas a person who self-mutilates seeks to feel better. Although these behaviors are sometimes referred to as parasuicide most researchers recognize that the self-injurer generally does not intend to die as a result of his/her acts. Many professionals continue to define acts of self-harm as merely and totally being symptomatic of Borderline Personality Disorder instead of considering that they may well be disorders in their own right.'

 

'Many of those who injure themselves are strongly aware of the fine line they walk, but are also resentful of doctors and mental health professionals who define their incidents of self-harm as suicide attempts instead of seeing them as the desperate attempts to release the pain that needs to be released in order to not end up suicidal.'

 

http://www.borderlinepersonality.ca/selfharm.htm

 

from an article 'Borderline Personality Disorder -- From the Inside Out - Self Harm', which examines various sorts of self-harm.

 

I clearly understood that Inna was expressing her angst at being beaten by her father through her cutting behavior, and that it was NOT suicidal in nature, and a form of release for her, expressing a form of quiet desperation, mixed with hope for a more normal circumstance, but by its disfiguring nature, causing her to be classified (and probably self-classified) as a self-mutilater, and then the issue would be whether she was obsessed by such thoughts, which is far greater than my ability with Russian and/or Ukrainian would allow me to go in the brief time I had her there as a photomodel.

 

Frankly, Alexander, despite your well-intentioned friend's intervention to add the term 'borderline' to the discussion, I am not sure that it adds all that much. (That assumes that Inna's father doesn't beat her BECAUSE she self-mutilates, which is another form of understanding which was too subtle for me to be able to discern, but within the realm of possibility.

 

However, whether he beat her before her self-mutiliation or BECAUSE she self-mutililated, his anger and violent behavior as shown by her showing his clenched fist hitting her face, was expressive of a horrible environment for a young woman to grow up in, and this horrible winter in Ukraine (temperatures there today are 5 degrees Fahrenheit and have been lower, which is unusual for Odessa which borders the Black Sea on the continent's southern border north of Turkey,) she is without shelter, and there are no or limited professional mental health facilities available to such women in a land where meat is something that many people eat on holidays only, to supplement a diet of bread and potatoes in the winter months, and in which one has to survey 10 pharmacies to find ibuprophen, e.g. Motrin, etc. (acetomenophen -- the ingredient in Tyelenol is plentiful, however).

 

At least I don't think I made things worse for Inna and it is unlikely her father ever will see this photo; Inna later sent her friends to me because I treated her with kindness and respect.

 

Even though I didn't photograph any of them, several of them stopped me on the street and requested to be photographed, obviously having heard of my kindness and understanding with Inna, but not knowing that the ultimate prize in photographing Inna was the exhibited photo, not some nude shots or anything sexually titallating.

 

It seems that perhaps the term 'borderline' in this context explains the outcome rather than the cause of the life events that led to such behavior, although I an open to tutelage from someone who is clinically experienced and who has a series of initials after their name (of course that won't always make them right).

 

Thanks Alexander, this is an interesting discussion -- you have enriched it, but I think you have sold yourself 'short'.

 

Respectfully,

 

John

John

 

You did sort out a good quote. My redrawal was meant on my interpretation of the cutting behaviour as a mere cry for help - maybe something like a suicide attempt - which is not right.

 

Many of the reseachers interpret it as a kind of action also bringing relief from psychological pressure to the people. Leaving us with a different value and intention for this behavior concerning the Cutter himself.

 

If you want to help you got to distinguish very careful because otherwise you might try to work on the wrong end of the problem.

 

Nevertheless those responsible for the conditions under which Ninna and many others have to live, should be charged with their share. And that is a big one and not only for her father or family, to my opinion.

 

I found in an english dictionary for: making someone responsible = to father something on someone.

You are right, such cutting behavior appears to fall far short of suicidal behavior, and is more compulsive and at the same time ritualistic, designed to relieve stress through the cumulation of self-mutilation, thereby averting the deep depression that might drive a vulnerable person to suicide.

 

However, one cannot blame Ukrainian society in general -- it's far too poor at present, although the people have very good intentions in general.

 

There are always the troglodytes, and who knows how 'good' or 'bad' a kid Inna was as she grew up and whether or not that was 'in reaction to' her father's violent behavior (if indeed she reports that right) or he behaved violently in reaction to her cutting behavior (if I misinterpreted or she reported it wrongly to me -- either is a possibility).

 

Still, if there was abuse, there is absolutely no excuse, only some possible understanding of the dynamics involved.

 

Curious how such a photo can impel such a discussion among us non-cogniscenti, and cause such reflection and research.

 

Maybe the photo has even more power than I gave it credit for.

 

I continue to be haunted by it.

 

(and hope her father never sees this, but I doubt he even has a computer, let alone Internet access or even knows someone who does).

 

(This is the problem all responsible reporters face frequently -- expose the ill and subject the victims to retaliation, or leave it covered to fester and maybe dozens or hundreds like it similarly will fester, unnoticed except for the power of a photo like this.)

 

John

To solve a problem you must analyze it and find the intitial details and then you reconstruct it from there. There are many intermediate solutions you might find on the way, helpfull for the people involved.

 

But in the end I do what polticians and global economy keep telling us. THINK GLOBAL.

 

Though they always forget to mention the obvious conclusion. BLAME GLOBAL.

I understand the admonition 'THINK GLOBAL', but its application to poor Inna here, simply escapes me. Perhaps you can elucidate. For my life, I think Inna's problem is primarily with her father and Ukraine's lack of social services, not something some plutocrat in Switzerland did.

 

John

primarily is right John

 

but what is the reason for the lack of social services in most of the new eastern states?

 

do you really think most of the people there will have a better life in future? to my opinion they will be exploited for some years now, with the promise for future improvement, and then the caravan (of international finance and capital) will move to the next place, as we say here.

 

and second girls like Inna cannot only be found in those obviously poor countries. they can also be found in europe and in the states.

 

so the deeper reason for such destinies cannot be the local misbehaviour of the ukrainian society.

 

the deeper reason is that the contemporary ideas of economy and society do not integrate and more and more lack the idea of social responsibility and care. they do not even have an idea, of what they do, when they destroy long grown social structures with one struck - may they be estimated good or bad - and make them an object of daily arbitrary change.

 

why do you think there is a KISS Army?