As a single image this photograph is engaging and evokes a strong feeling of despair. It is, however, a clichéd image, seen many times before:
“Sad young woman looks through a window at a cruel world.”
The image is technically accomplished with a simple yet effective use of colours - yellow, blue and grey. The photograph is structurally conventional, obeying the rule of thirds in its positioning of the subject.
The pattern of rain on the young girl’s t-shirt echoes the sadness that is inherent in the image, crying the tears that are beyond the expression on the girl’s face.
The bars on the window give the impression that the girl is imprisoned and fragmented. Furthermore, there are frames within the Frame, reinforcing this impression. The decaying wood suggests a further dreary cliché of gritty moral decay. The low perspective hints that this girl is somehow out of reach and beyond salvation and the photographer somehow conveniently steps aside leaving the 'captured' woman and the viewer in an uncomfortable stand-off situation.
This, however, is not a standalone image. Dana Popa's exhibition (Not Natasha - currently at the Profusion Gallery in Brixton) is a composite entity attempting to document Moldovan sex trafficked women and so none of the images truly stands alone.
The above picture feels posed, as do most of the images in the show and there are no decisive moments. Nothing is spontaneously captured. Nothing simply observed, reported and documented. All is created and posed, to fit with Popa’s pre-conceptions. She has manipulated the situation for her own artistic and commercial gain. (Her book retails at £14.95.)
Her photographic motives are more important than her subjects and she has let these people down by portraying them only as victims. Ironically, she objectifies these women by depicting only part of their story. The photographs, quite deliberately, show a complete absence of hope and joy that is difficult to believe. These women have, after all, survived, yet their strength is nowhere to be seen. Popa has skewed her photographic story too far towards a contrived victimhood and further exploits the exploited
