“Donna Ferrato is the Anais Nin of contemporary photojournalism.” She is a gadfly, an activist, a mother, a provocateur, and foremost, an internationally recognized photojournalist who has created images that have documented and changed the world around her. American Photographer described Ferrato as “a photographer who emerged from – and goes beyond – the black and white documentary tradition.”

Ferrato’s attention has been consumed with two major projects, domestic violence and human sexual behavior. One might ask what these two seemingly disparate subjects have in common. For Ferrato, they are individual segments in her perpetual pursuit to visually explore and record the most intimate aspects of human behavior. Her images have challenged ignorant attitudes about love and violence promoted by society and brought attention to injustice, changed laws, and provoked people to ponder on behavior that usually remains behind closed doors.

In 1982, while on assignment about the libidos of a rich suburban couple, something occurred that changed Ferrato’s path as a photographer. She witnessed a husband beat his wife in a drug-induced rage. Her first instinct was to take a picture. Then she stopped him. She caught his rage on film. This event started Ferrato’s mission to stop the cycle of abuse with proof of its terrible toll on society through taking pictures.

In 1991, Aperture published her decade-long investigation of families under siege in the book LIVING WITH THE ENEMY. Ferrato is presently working on a video about the children in the book. She will also have the world’s most comprehensive domestic abuse website online, www.AbuseAware.com, sponsored by WebMD in Fall 2007.

In order to achieve a sense of balance in her life and work, Ferrato searches for love in its many forms. Her two other books, AMORE (Motta Editions, 2002) and LOVE & LUST (Aperture, 2004) reflect her thoughts about love and the importance of being open and non-judgmental about the many ways to love.

Ferrato’s empathetic eye is a natural born tool that helps her look at lovers in a way that is not intrusive. She feels women have been misunderstood as men historically set up women in predictable male masturbation scenarios; Helmut Newton on one end of the stick, and Penthouse’s Bob Guccione at the other. Her photographs reveal the desire to understand where women’s fantasies come from, and how their sexual pleasure may be directly related to fantasy or corporal self-awareness.

She resides in New York City.
http://www.donnaferrato.com