Photo by Jonathan Torgovnik, courtesy the artist.

Aperture is pleased present another limited-edition photograph from Jonathan Torgovnik’s Intended Consequences:Rwandan Childern Born of Rape project. Last year we released the portrait of Jean-Paul, and we are happy to release a companion portrait.  Emmanuelle is one of an estimated twenty thousand children born of rape during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Over the past three years Torgovnik has made repeated trips to Rwanda to document the experience of children like Emmanuelle, and their mothers, who fifteen years later continue to face enourmous challenges.

The sale of both of these prints benefit both the Aperture Foundation and Foundation Rwanda.

Click here to purchase the new print of Jonathan Torgovnik, Emmanuelle.

Click here to purchase the book Intended Consequences.

Click below to see an excerpt from a panel discussion on the recently published book and Spring 2009 Aperture Gallery exhibition, Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape, photographs and interviews by Jonathan Torgovnik. The April 29, 2009 discussion, held at the Aperture Gallery, features Torgovnik explaining how he decided to go beyond his editorial project and started to document Rwandan women who were subjected to massive sexual violence by members of the Hutu militia groups during the 1994 genocide, and who all bore a child as a result. Since these women’s testimonies all emphasized the importance of education, Torgovnik co-founded Foundation Rwanda, which uses photography and video as tools to raise awareness, support the enrichment of the children, and to provide psychological help for the mothers.

You can watch the panel discussion in its entirety, divided in six different parts, on the multimedia section of our website or by clicking on the links below:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Commemorating the fifteenth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, the panelists included the artist Jonathan Torgovnik; Carl Auerbach, Professor of Psychology at Yeshiva University; and Melissa Robinson, Director of Educational Programming of the non-profit organization Kids for Tomorrow. Rwandan women Marie Claudine Mukamabano, a genocide survivor, Rosette Burakari Adera, whose parents were Rwandan refugees, and Yvette Rugasaguhunga, read testimonies of the genocide survivors portrayed in the exhibition and book.

Fifteen years after the genocide, the mothers of these estimated 20,000 children still face enormous challenges, among them, being stigmatized within their communities for bearing a child fathered by a Hutu militiaman and the medical repercussions for those who contracted HIV through the violent attacks.

Torgovnick’s work on this issue was also featured in Aperture magazine, issue 194.

Aperture magazine is a finalist for a National Magazine Award in General Excellence (under 100,000 circulation), the magazine industry’s highest honor.  The awards recognize print and online magazines that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative editorial techniques, journalistic enterprise, and imaginative design. Winners will be announced April 30. See the complete list of finalists here.

In addition, the latest issue of Aperture magazine is now available and features:

•    Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape
Photojournalist Jonathan Torgovnik provides and intimate look at the tragic legacy of Rwandan women who were sexually tortured by militiamen during and after the 1994 genocide, and their inheritors: children born of rape. An exhibition of this dramatic work is on view at Aperture Gallery through May 7th.
•    Sally Mann: Untitled
A selection from Mann’s latest family-focused project: intimate photographs of her husband Larry.
•    Jiang Jian: Memory and History by Vicky Goldberg
Photographer Jiang documents life in his native rural China.
Click here to see an expanded interview and additional images from the artist.
•    Photography and Human Rights by Anthony Downey
Downey discusses photographs that explore the stateless condition of the dispossessed and the plight of refugees.
•    Pertti Kekarainen: The Sensation of Seeing by Lyle Rexer
A look at the Finnish photographer’s abstract photography.
•    Look Close: The Scrapbooks of Dan Eldon and Candy Jernigan
Jessica Helfand explores the inventive journals of two artists who died tragically young.
•    William van der Weyde and the American Morality Plan by Michael Lesy
An introduction to the curious work of this little-known early-twentieth-century photographer.
•   Lise Sarfati: She
Sandra S. Philips presents a selection from Sarfati’s latest body of work, focused on the complex relationships of four women.

During the 1994 genocide, hundreds of thousands of Rwandan women were subjected to massive sexual violence by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups, known as the Interhamwe. Among the most isolated survivors are women who have borne children as a result of those rapes. The number of children born from these atrocities is estimated around 20,000. Due to the stigma of rape and “having a child of the militia,” the women’s communities and few surviving relatives have largely shunned them. Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape brings together Jonathan Torgovnik’s remarkable portraits of these women and children, and their harrowing first-hand testimonies.

The exhibition on view at Aperture Gallery is comprised of thirty-one stunning individual portraits of these women with their children, accompanied by their testimonies—intensely personal accounts of what they have gone through, the daily challenges they continue to face, and their conflicted feelings about raising a child who is a reminder of horrors endured. The testimonies are presented in text panels and multimedia interviews projected in the center of the installation, produced by MediaStorm. The exhibition also features a video interview with Torgovnik.

Come see this powerful exhibition on view starting tomorrow, Friday, February 20, at Aperture Gallery.

Click here to view a special multimedia feature from Intended Consequences.

Aperture’s accompanying book, Intended Consequences will be published worldwide on April 7, 2009, coinciding with the fifteenth anniversary of the genocide and the opening of a satellite exhibition in the lobby of the United Nations.

Opening reception:
Thursday, March 5, 2009, 6:00–8:00 pm

Exhibition on view:
Friday, February 20–Thursday, May 7, 2009

Panel Discussion with the Artist: Wednesday, April 29, 6:30 p.m.

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th floor
(between 10th and 11th Avenues)
New York, NY
(212) 505-5555

Subway: C, E to 23rd Street and 8th Avenue or 1 to 28th Street and 7th Avenue

FREE

This book and exhibition were done in collaboration with the Open Society Institute, Amnesty International, and Foundation Rwanda.