Alexia Foundation: Sara Naomi Lewkowicz – 1st Student Prize
This reportage work of Sara Naomi Lewkowicz is a combination of chance and journalistic conviction. Planning to cover the return of former inmates to society, she entered the lives of Shane and Maggie just as he was released from prison. At first she captured scenes of family tenderness: Maggie with her two children on her lap, her cheeks pink with emotion, exchanging loving glances with Shane; Maggie, dressed up for one of their rare nights out, wrapped in Shane’s tattooed arms, leaning in for a passionate kiss.
Suddenly the images take a violent turn. Eyes once filled with desire are now filled with jealousy and pleading. Hands once used for embracing are balled into fists. Their mouths are screaming, their lips trembling, their eyes gleaming with tears. The dream only lasted a short while before it was shattered. Shane risks 17 years in prison and Maggie has moved to Alaska to be closer to the father of her children.
The subject Lewkowicz had planned to cover changed. She transformed this incident into a study of the patterns of abusive relationship. Commenting on her series, she studied the context, development, and explosion, and will soon focus on its less sensational consequences. There is a surprising spontaneity in these photographs, in the way she is present as a photographer without being intrusive, documenting without interfering. Instead she decided to act with her camera, instinctively accepting its limits and its potential.
Laurence Cornet
