“In November of this year, I’ll have made three years of attempting to make sense of the pain that is having your sexual agency ripped from you. This is not something I’ve been able to share publicly up until right now. Initially, I failed to even realize the truth behind what had happened to me. Not to mention, the people closest to me (at the time) discarded my truth entirely. Few people believed me, but I’m eternally grateful to the few who did. Over the course of these years though, I’ve been called to heal and learn from this experience. What once caused me so much pain, guilt, and uncertainty has now become a source of knowledge and deep empathy for anyone else who may have experienced similar pain. Which, if you’ve ever had a conversation with a group of women, happens much more frequently than we speak on.

These images are my attempt to conceptualize some of that pain. I will be selling these images in the form of prints and giving all proceeds to SafeATX, a local not-for-profit organization that serves survivors of sexual assault, exploitation, violence, and abuse. They work actively towards ending the repetitive cycles of violence that no human should ever be victim to, something we should all be making an attempt to do.

These images were shot on film by my talented friend Sissy & modeling was assisted by my Grace. Thank you guys for helping me make sense of such heavy subject matter. There’s so much vulnerability in revisiting memories tied to trauma. I would not have been able to create these without y’all.”

10/14/2021 @mikaelamedina_