Striking Photo Series Asserts Women’s Fight Against Oppression

Bhargavi Joshi’s photo series ‘PRINTiED VIOLATION’ aims to make people notice the atrocities women face globally.

When injustice and atrocities against women become so commonplace that people no longer pay heed to the oppression displayed right in front of them, it drives home the point about how deep-rooted this social evil is in our world.

At a time when the country is marred with news of women being abused day in and day out, there are many fighting to bring about a change. Indian-Canadian artist and photographer Bhargavi Joshi’s striking photo series ‘PRINTiED VIOLATION’ aims to do the same - to make people sit up and take notice of the wrong being perpetrated.

She wants to make a strong visual imprint through this series which depicts the many monstrosities women are subjected to.

Sexual and domestic abuse, genital mutilation, female infanticide, curbing free speech, objectification, unequal pay – the list is long and varied, but Joshi says “change can begin if we just start with raising our voice when we see a woman being wronged.”

These crimes and violations are happening all around us. The extremely high occurrence of these issues worldwide has desensitized people. I want this campaign to be a stark reminder, that ignoring these issues doesn’t make them disappear.

Bhargavi Joshi

These photographs exude subtlety, as opposed to the stark issues they raise. Bhargavi says she purposely kept the series artistic and appealing.

People tend to pay attention to attractive things. It’s just how our brain works. So, I wanted to conceptually draw attention to these problems by creating a lasting impact.

Every creative detail of the photos has a purpose behind it. The women are painted white, so as to shift the focus from their physical traits and race to the only fact that mattered, that they are women.

She says, “I wanted them to look like delicate porcelain figures to symbolize how our patriarchal society regards the female sex as fragile. But if you look at the faces and expressions of the women, you will see their strength.”

The clothes are made from medical gauze to symbolize how society tries to conceal women’s wounds instead of crusading against the injustice.

Joshi decided to do this project after noticing a common thread of the problems faced by women all over the world, cutting across age, race and social status.

Having spent my life between Mumbai, Los Angeles and Toronto, I realised that these problems weren’t reserved for the poor or the women in third-world countries. Women worldwide were struggling to fight for their rights one way or the other.

Bhargavi Joshi

Joshi herself has been a victim of sexual abuse when she was four and continued to fight harassment and sexism all through her life and career, being a woman photographer.

She says she doesn’t want other women to be alone in this fight against injustice as she was. Through this series, she wants to spread the message that everyone has to stand up and fight for this.

(Bhargavi Joshi is an Indian-Canadian photographer. You can follow her work on her Facebook page and website.)