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Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom. - Jiddu Krishnamurti 📸 @hasanacan

I have been photographing victims of rape as a weapon of war for over 10 years now, and it is always an extremely difficult and sensitive story to cover. Once I went over the guidelines with Ayak – in terms of how she felt about being photographed, given that her image would be seen by thousands around the world – I spent several hours with her. She was a very thoughtful, articulate woman, and despite the sexual assault that led to her pregnancy, and the horrors she had experienced in South Sudan, she was excited about the imminent birth of her child. I contemplated possible additional photographs in my head as I fell asleep, and when I woke up the next morning, I knew I wanted Ayak’s photograph to speak to the consequences of rape as a weapon of war. The most natural way for me to do this was to focus on her belly. I didn't want to ask something of her she might find distressing or disrespectful, so I asked Kimberly L. Smith from Make Way Partners what she thought, and together, we went to Ayak to ask how she felt about being photographed without her dress on. I trusted Kimberly’s judgment, as she knew Ayak, had been working in the region for many years, and had focused the bulk of her work on helping survivors of sexual violence and sex trafficking. Kimberly, herself, had survived multiple attacks while setting up orphanages on the border between Sudan and South Sudan, and was also raped during those attacks. Her experience did not deter her from continuing her work in the region. We sat down with Ayak, and discussed my vision for her portrait, and she didn't hesitate at all; she understood what I was trying to convey, and as I photographed, I showed her the images on my camera to ensure she understood what I was capturing. Over time, Ayak's body language changed: she stood proudly, more confidently, at peace. It seemed that the very act of photographing Ayak and her unborn child gave her the opportunity to celebrate the very thing her perpetrators had tried to rob from her – her beauty and her dignity. - @lynseyaddario for @time

We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational, and so disciplined they can be free. – Kavita Ramdas 📸 @serenawilliams Annie Leibovitz

Love just happens. Nobody thinks about how to love, or when and where to love. Nobody is rational about love. Rational thought hinders love. Love is a sudden rising in the heart. Love is an unavoidable, unobstructable longing for oneness. There is no logic in this. It is beyond logic. So do not try to be rational about love. It is like trying to give reasons for the river to flow, for the breeze to be cool and gentle, for the moon to glow, for the sky to be expansive, for the ocean to be vast and deep, or for the flower to be fragrant and beautiful. Rationalisation kills the beauty and charm of these things. They are to be enjoyed, experienced, loved and felt. If you rationalise about them, you will miss the beauty and charm and the feelings they evoke. Sit by the seashore. Look at it. Feel its vastness. Feel the rising up and down of the waves. Feel and be amazed at the creation and the creator of such magnificence. What good will it do you to rationalise about the ocean? - Amma 📸 Ganna Walska

You don’t have to be pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female.' –Erin McKean 📸 @alexleese

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