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[January 22, 2003] -
Omaha photojournalist Nobuko Oyabu knows the power of pictures. Her life has revolved around capturing images, telling stories, communicating her message. Never in her wildest dreams did she imagine she’d have a story to tell that would be so powerful, so personal. Her current project is called “Faces of Rape.” It’s a positive exhibit about victims who are now becoming survivors. “Statewide” photojournalist Ray Meints has the story.
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Transcript of Faces of Rape
[Ray Meints/Reporting] Taking pretty pictures isn't always about nice smiles. Sometimes the truth behind the pictures is much deeper, and darker. Photojournalist Nobuko Oyabu knows the truth.
[Nobuko Oyabu/Photographer] I do take pictures of survivors of rape and sexual abuse. In many styles and all kinds of people.
[Meints] Hers is a photo project about healing and inner strength. It is a project designed to wipe away shame and bring hope to the women and men who have become survivors.
[Lynnette Phelps and Oyabu] The abuse took place, the majority of it, right here. And you were pregnant? Right. Sorry. But the child is all right? No, that baby died.
[Meints] Lynnette Phelps is a survivor.
[Phelps] It was very serious. It stared off as basically verbal. It went from verbal to physical. As a matter of fact, two days after I was married, I was hit in the jaw, and ended up in the emergency room.
[Oyabu] First of all, this kind of violence has to stop. Domestic violence, sexual assault is not just beating wives and molesting children. It's about turning honest children into adults dangerous to society.
[David Newson] Sexual abuse is not just about abusive things that happen to women. It happens to men.
[Meints] David Newson is also a survivor.
[Newson] My abuse was sexual abuse. I had been sexually molested at the age of 7. And it had been repeatedly throughout my life, from the age of 7 to about 12.
[Meints] David knows of the pain and shame of sexual abuse. But he also knows of the healing power that comes from confronting his past, and he's experienced the peace that Nobuko's pictures have given.
[Newson] I want them to get a message of peace. I want them to get a message of relief. I want them to see the message that here was a person, a man who was in agony, who hid behind pain, who hid behind the abuse that was passed on from another person and left to deal with the agony all by itself, was now healed. Now we can talk, we can be just friends, we can be whatever we gonna be. Because now you know this, and so, the project, that's what it helped, heal that area that I was able to talk about it.
[Oyabu] When I take pictures of those survivors, a lot of them said, you know, this is the first time for a long time that I've felt that I'm somebody. So putting their faces out and telling their story makes them, it's almost like getting their self back. It's like they are taking their power back.
[Meints] Krista Knicely speaks publicly about her survival. As Miss Nebraska 2002, she wants people to know that her healing came through forgiveness.
[Krista Knicely] On November in 1999, Thanksgiving day, I was home alone in a house, when a man in a ski mask broke into the home, and attempted to sexually assault me.
[Meints] It's a story of survival that she freely shares with students. Krista was saved from being raped with help from her friends. Her attacker was caught, arrested, and is serving 99 years in a Texas prison.
[Knicely] Right after the incident happened, I was just a mess. For about the next year I suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, which is common for many women who have been sexually assaulted. Finally about a year after the attack I was able to forgive my attacker, in which I felt a tremendous release. From that point forward, my life has been going right back up. It's very liberating and empowering for women to have themselves photographed and say I'm not afraid. I'm not ashamed. I'm not embarrassed. And many of the women, as Nuboko has told me, are going to the place where women have been raped. So this is an empowering moment for them, and I think it's a very broad, powerful message that these women are saying.
[Meints] Truly Nobuko understands the pain these survivors have had to deal with.
[Oyabu] I was raped when I was 28, a few years ago. In my own house. I was sleeping. Earlier that day I covered a golf tournament all day long, so I was really tired. So I went to bed earlier than usual. And I must have been sleeping really hard because I didn't hear any noise. This guy was breaking in. But when I woke up, he was already standing at my bedroom door. For a moment I was like, am I dreaming, or is this really happening? And as soon as I noticed he was real, I just jumped out of the bed and tried to run, but he caught me right then and raped me there.
[Meints] Three days later, her attacker was caught and sent to prison for 20 years. Now for Nobuko, and the survivors she's photographed, these acts of violation have turned into stories of triumph. And through her camera lens, and a personal understanding, she's determined to present these portraits of hope, of survival.
[Oyabu] A lot of sexual abuse/rape survivors have such low self-esteem. They don't see themselves, they don't see what kind of potential they have. So putting their faces out and telling their story, it's almost like getting their self back. They are taking their power back.
[Knicely] I just really admire Nobuko and I admire all the women who come forward, and are able to share with someone, this is what happened to me, I think it's an important part of healing for women to be able to talk about it. So my encouragement to women who have been assaulted, is to talk about it, is to tell someone, to come forward, because that begins the healing process.
[Meints] For Lynnette Phelps, the healing process is ongoing. The images that once revealed the pain of abuse have now turned into portraits of survival
[Phelps] I can go back and look at it in a different eye and say look, I had victory over this, so I can go and relate to some other victim and say this is how I went through, and this is how I got over it.
[Meints] Reporting for Statewide, I'm Ray Meints.