Description: For the past four years, photojournalist Mary F. Calvert has been focusing her journalistic attention on the continually under-reported relegation and abuse of women and men in the US Armed Forces.

Women and men who join the US Armed Forces are being raped and sexually assaulted by their colleagues in record numbers. This important and powerfully told reports tell the story of some of the brave individuals who are doing their best to speak out – against an overwhelming pressure to remain silent. An estimated 20,000 rapes and sexual assaults took place in 2016 and only 6,236 female victims reported their attacks.

Just one in ten of those cases went to trial and most military rape survivors are forced out of service. The violence of the rape adand the ensuing emotional trauma are compounded by the futility of reporting the attacks to their commanders. With only a 4% conviction rate, it is no wonder that only 17% of male victims report sexual assault crimes.

Most male victims often take between 20-40 years to even acknowledge the crime or talk about the assault with family, friends or therapists. At the White House and during hearings on Capitol Hill, the US military has been forced to examine why rape and sexual assault are so prevalent within their ranks. In addition, they must confront a culture where its victims ignored and the abuse is considered simply a breach of conduct – not a criminal offense. The effects of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) include depression, substance abuse, paranoia and feelings of isolation. Victims spend years drowning in shame and fear as the psychological damage silently eats away at their lives.

Many frequently end up addicted to drugs and alcohol, homeless or take their own lives. Mary is on the side of the victims, bearing witness to the fight for justice, arousing people’s consciences to make change happen.

Location:

INFO

Location:
Chiostro Basilica di San Domenico 
Piazza Madre Teresa di Calcutta, 2

Period: 2019

Photographer Biography:     

Photojournalist Mary F. Calvert is committed to using photography to affect meaningful social change and is known for producing work on gender-based human rights issues.
Calvert believes that journalists have a duty to shine a light into the deepest recesses of the human experience and provide a mirror for society to examine itself. Mary has been focusing her journalistic attention on the continually under-reported relegation and abuse of women in the US Armed Forces.

Her work “Sexual Assault in America’s Military” was awarded 1st Prize, Long Term Projects in the 2016 World Press Photo Contest and the next chapter of the project, “Prisoners of War: Male-on-male Sexual Assault in America’s Military” was awarded the 2016 Getty Images Grant in Editorial Photography and the 2nd Prize, Contemporary Issues, Singles, in the 2019 World Press Photo Contest.“The Battle Within: Sexual Assault in America’s Military” has been awarded the 2015 and 2014 National Press Photographers Association, Cliff Edom New America Award and 2013 the Canon Female Photojournalist Award. The resulting work was featured in a solo exhibition at the 2014 Visa Pour L’Image, International Festival of Photojournalism in Perpignan, France.

In 2014 Calvert was the recipient of the Alexia Foundation Women’s Initiative Grant for her project “Missing in Action: Homeless Women Veterans,” and in 2015, she was awarded the 2015 W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Fellowship.

In 2014 Calvert was the recipient of the Alexia Foundation Women’s Initiative Grant for her project “Missing in Action: Homeless Women Veterans,” and in 2015, she was awarded the 2015 W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Fellowship.

She has won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award twice and is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist in Feature Photography.