Jonathan Torgovnik

Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape

June 4, 2009 - June 28, 2009

Jonathan Torgovnik’s Intended Consequences: Rwandan Children Born of Rape is a series of remarkable portraits of mothers with their sons and daughters, and their harrowing first-hand testimonies.

In February of 2006, Torgovnik traveled to East Africa to report on a story for Newsweek, coinciding with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the outbreak of HIV/AIDS. While in Rwanda, he heard an interview with Odette, a survivor who was raped during the Rwandan genocide and as a result of that rape, had a child and contracted HIV/AIDS. She described how her entire family had been killed and recounted the terrible abuse she experienced. Odette’s horrific story led Torgovnik to return to Rwanda to work on a personal project about women who, like her, were left pregnant as a result the militia’s heinous crimes.

Over the next three years, he made repeated visits to photograph these women and their children, and record their heart-wrenching stories.

Torgovnik created Foundation Rwanda in 2008 with Jules Shell to assist Rwandan families impacted by HIV/AIDS.

2009Blue Sky, Oregon Center for the Photographic ArtsJonathan Torgovnik, color, portrait, international, africa, crime, narrative, story, personal, mother, children, parenthood, motherhood