For me, Donna Ferrato’s photo series “Living With the Enemy” is one of the most inspiring large-scale photojournalism projects I have ever seen and/or read about. Ferrato captures moments of domestic abuse in these images, as well as the after effects of emotions, physical wounds and legal justice.  I chose to include the image on the left because it conveys to me what Ferrato’s photo story has helped more women do: leave their abusive partners in search for a safer, better life. I think this is such a sensitive topic, and some of the images are graphic, but they are the truth; they are what happens to thousands of women every day, probably more. Being able to publish these images has led to changes for not only women in domestic violence situations, but for other people in law enforcement and communities interested in taking collective action against these awful crimes. If she had just documented these individual’s stories through text, it probably wouldn’t have made as large of an impact on as many people as it did (although for me, it would have been just as powerful). It’s the sad truth that many people just need to physically see something before they can empathize and understand what is happening. It must have taken a lot of courage and determination to capture these photos, and it’s admirable.

The other photo story we were told to research is W. Eugene Smith’s “Country Doctor.”  Although older and somewhat different than Ferrato’s photo story, Smith’s story still had a powerful impression on me. I chose to display the image on the left because it shows one of the two most important things I think of when I imagine a rural, small-town traveling doctor: attending to the elderly and helping women go through labor. I think this image in particular conveys the intimacy of the patient-doctor relationship that Dr. Ernest Ceriani (the country doctor) had with every single one of his patients. The trusting gaze of the elderly man as Dr. Ceriani does his job is very well-captured in this photograph.

It’s interesting to me how one of these photo essays documents a wide-impact social and political issue, while the other simply captures the essence of the life of an individual man. From these two stories, one can see the diversity of ways that photojournalism can operate, and imagine that there are hundreds of thousands of categories in between the two. Overall very inspiring.