Shane and Maggie met through Shane’s sister over a year ago, when Maggie was living next door to her. They began dating after Shane was released from his most recent stint in prison. Shane began exhibiting controlling behavior early in the relationship, but Maggie said she felt she could help Shane overcome his personal demons and addictions. One night in November, their relationship exploded into violence, in an incident that left Maggie with marks on her neck and Shane in jail.
I am reconstructing their relationship from its beginnings, through the episode of abuse that led to Shane’s arrest, and continuing through to Maggie’s current life in Alaska, where she is trying to reconcile with the father of her children. I want to explore domestic violence as a process that involves the grooming of and breaking down of the victim over time, as opposed to merely an isolated incident. It is my intention to use this story to examine the larger patterns of behavior that allow abuse to occur.
Sara Lewkowicz is a native New Yorker pursuing a master’s degree in visual communication from Ohio University in Athens. She received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Her work has been published in Time Magazine, Stern, Das Magazin, Internatzionale, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, and numerous other publications. She is the 2013 winner of the Alexia Student Grant and has been recognized by the White House News Photographers Association. She has attended numerous workshops for visual journalism, including the Eddie Adams Workshop XXV, and is a 2013 Joop Swart nominee. She has a particular interest in documenting gender and sexuality issues, and hopes to move to the Middle East upon graduating to continue her work.
