There Is Always a Way Out! Images of Place and Identity for Women Escaping Domestic Violence

Abstract

Bowstead presents images by women who have been forced to leave home due to domestic violence. Such forced internal migration—creating tens of thousands of internally displaced women and children—is generally under-recognised in a country like the UK. As well as emotional, legal and practical issues on such journeys, women are often dealing with a sense of displacement and issues of identity for themselves, and their children. In the research, three groups of women in different areas of London have used photography to communicate their experiences of home, identity and belonging whilst they stayed in women’s domestic violence refuges, and as they explored the area they had arrived in. The chapter discusses issues of belief, traditions and hope from thematic analysis of the photographs and captions, and reflects on the participatory process and creative methods as enabling women to communicate their senses of place, identity and belonging and their embodied strategies for resettlement and re-making home. It highlights how the visual enables women to narrate their experiences and insights, exploring the implications for women of their journeys, and the meaning for them of the places they have been and where they now find themselves.