The photos directed at Brock Turner: ‘I tried capturing the real thing’

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The photos directed at Brock Turner: ‘I tried capturing the real thing’

It was published on the same day as Turner’s release

Friday marked the early release of Brock Turner, the infamous Stanford University rapist who was sentenced to six months in prison, but only served half his sentence.

Ithaca College junior, Yana Mazurkevich, created a photo series called “It Happens,” in collaboration with Current Solutions, a sexual assault advocacy group that aims to encourage sexual assault survivors to share their stories and safely speak out about these issues in an unfiltered way.

Her first series, “Dear Brock Turner,” challenged rape culture, and went viral after it was released in June. She shot “It Happened” in her second year, and intentionally published the second project on the same day of Brock Turner’s premature release from jail.

The series is purposefully race, gender, and sexuality blind to show that sexual assault can happen to anyone – not just women. The Tab spoke to Yana Mazurkevich about the series.

What is the context and purpose behind “It Happens,” is it more than Brock Turner?

I wanted to capture the real thing. This is what sexual assault looks like and we don’t realize that it happens every single day – to absolutely anyone. It happens to our friends, their friends, and it just continues to trickle down.

I wanted to expand on diversity and gender equality, as well as race and ethnicity, because in my first series, that really lacked a lot. When the first series blew up on the internet, I was reading the comments on what everyone has been saying, and a lot of the comments were, “Men get raped too,” and, “Women get raped by women,” and, “Why are all these women white?”

I completely understand where people were coming from. So especially in this day and age I just wanted to expand and make everything inclusive.

What responses and reactions have you had from “It Happens”?

I’ve had a few critics look at it, a few friends, family and others who I value the opinion of… and their first initial reaction is, “oh, wow.” The images include a perpetrator and a victim, but it’s very much compared to the first one, which had them covering their face and holding their chest and shoulder.

In the second series, I really went for pure physical assault, and making it seem like it’s real. I wanted to make the viewer an actual bystander of the scene happening. I implemented that same gaze that I had in the first one because that gaze invites you into the image.

I’ve had continuous support from everyone who shares and comments. What’s extremely unreal are the stories that I receive from survivors. It’s amazing to be the person people want to share their experiences with.

How do you hope this photo series will help spread awareness to the community?

I want to start a conversation. I want people to share their stories, especially via Current Solutions. They are so amazing at their job and letting others know that it is okay to share their experiences. By working together and sparking this kind of conversation, we are creating and spreading awareness.

You can share and read stories related to the issue on Current Solution’s Facebook page and find more of Mazurkevich’s work here.

All photos: Mazurkevich’s “It Happens” photo series / Courtesy of Yana Mazurkevich

@TheTab