In this post I am going to share with you a photo shooting we accomplished back in November 2020 and specifically on the 25th,which is the International Day for the elimination of violence against women.After the me Too movemet in US,the past few weeks there is a wave,in my country Greee,with a heap of accusations against high prolific names on the entertainment industry,in the fields of theatre,T.V. and movie productions but also they have been some reports about journalists.
Here on Escape Karma we show zero tolerance towards any type of violence,verbal,physical,sexual,psychological and not only against women(it was just the concept of the day and I was the available role model) but against homosexual and heterosexual men too and mainly we want to raise awareness about children abuse.
What came to the light of the publicity so far about what’s going on behind the curtains of the theatre or the auditions were shocking for some of us but it has been long whispered in the art world although never openly discussed.
The concept of the photo shooting conceived by me and my collaborator and photographer Panagiotis Kadigkos,he wrapped my face to the point which literally,I almost were able to breathe and my body so that I can barely be able to move.
In that way we were willing to approach the feelings of the victims,to get to know their psychology or the reason of their non-reaction,the fact that they feel paralyzed in front of their abuser,in order for me to be able to capture the expressions on the photos and try to put myself on their shoes.What we did we did it with respect,our intentions are to empower those people,to give a helping hand,to awake the society so as to speak up about the injustice when we become witnesses of unjustifiable phenomena.
Photos Panagiotis Kadigkos
The first question that comes to mind,not to everyone’s fortunately,is why now?Why the victim decided to speak his truth about the abuse after so many years?Well if life were kind with you and you’ve never experienced something like this before at least please try to understand them in depth.
But we are proud and standing by the side of those who find the strength and the courage to share their burden with us in order to ease their souls,to protect and empower others,to heal their traumas,to accept and love themselves and in the end to forgive their abuser for their own cracked psychology who lead them to the abhorrent action.
The act of speaking up is of utmost importance,not because society thirsts for gossip and intrigue and is always ready to devour and taunt the perpetrators,but mostly because this act can enable and offer the chance to other victims in order to take the decision and share their agonizing story.
It gets a lot of nerve to reveal something so painful and personal,this act though may prevent future incidents,could lead the victims to alleviate their long time trauma and last but not least it opens the way to accept and love themselves despite the harassment and the abuse they have experienced.
Hope my article and photo story not insult those affected and not underestimate the seriousness of the current situation concerning the accusations of harassment and abuse.There is also one more photo shooting,a little bit more shocking,soon to be published.What causes me deep saddens,is the fact that our society lost the ability to get shocked,we are so familiar to the violence that violence itself doesn’t upset us.
Feel free to contact me if there is something that I have to alter or if you have something to state.
Photographer:Panagiotis Kadigkos
Model:Eleni Kadigkou
Eleni Kadigkou Xx
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