--- title: Donna Ferrato Work Captures Reality of Domestic Violence description: Photographer Donna Ferrato's "Behind Closed Doors" sparked conversations on domestic violence and is one of Time's most influential photos. canonical: https://time.com/4575229/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence-photo/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-17T20:43:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:03:54.434Z og:title: This Photograph Put a Face on the Epidemic of Domestic Violence og:description: And it’s one of TIME’s most influential photos of all time og:url: https://time.com/4575229/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc11d95e6e2f0f9b5/6988aef15f570f76ecb23538/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3732 og:image:height: 2099 og:image:alt: donna-ferrato-domestic-violence og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Photograph Put a Face on the Epidemic of Domestic Violence twitter:description: And it’s one of TIME’s most influential photos of all time twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc11d95e6e2f0f9b5/6988aef15f570f76ecb23538/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Photograph Put a Face on the Epidemic of Domestic Violence > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: 100 Photographs: A Portrait of Domestic Violence [Watch (HLS stream): 100 Photographs: A Portrait of Domestic Violence](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DuwGVoV2.m3u8) (11:48)  _Published 2016-06-01. The first published photo to record an act of domestic violence unfolding, Donna Ferrato’s shocking picture brought the issue of spousal abuse out of the shadows_  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Nov 17, 2016 8:43 PM UTC  Donna Ferrato  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Nov 17, 2016 8:43 PM UTC Photographer [Donna Ferrato](http://time.com/4353529/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence/) helped bring awareness to the epidemic of domestic violence in the United States through her raw and often graphic portraits of survivors of violence. But she fell into the work by accident after witnessing domestic violence firsthand. [“Behind Closed Doors,”](http://100photos.time.com/photos/donna-ferrato-behind-closed-doors) one of TIME’s [Most Influential Photographs of All Time](http://100photos.time.com/photos/donna-ferrato-behind-closed-doors), focused on a couple — then known under pseudonyms “Garth” and “Lisa,” but whose real names were [revealed in a TIME Red Border Film to](http://time.com/4353529/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence/) [be Bengt and Elisabeth](http://time.com/4353529/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence/) — who Ferrato had become friendly with during a photo project on swingers. At one point, Ferrato encouraged Lisa to wean herself off cocaine. But when Lisa hid the cocaine from Garth, he became violent with her. “In the middle of the night, I could hear Elisabeth screaming bloody murder. I grabbed my camera and ran down the hall to see what was going on. When I went in, I saw him picking his hand up to hit hit. And I thought, if I take a picture, it will make him stop,” Ferrato [told TIME in June](http://time.com/4353529/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence/). “This is a cautionary note for photographers who try to interfere in people’s lives. You don’t know what people are going to do. I didn’t know what was going to happen.” **_Read More:_** [_The 100 Most Influential Photographs of All Time_](http://100photos.time.com/) The incident inspired Ferrato’s life work: showcasing the reality of violence that many women face on a daily basis. Her work appeared in TIME and other publications, and she published a book, [_Living With the Enemy_](https://www.amazon.com/Donna-Ferrato-Living-Enemy/dp/0893814806?tag=timecom-20), of photographs on the issue in 1991\. Just three years later, Congress passed [the Violence Against Women Act](https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/vawa%5Ffactsheet.pdf), which was designed to improve the prosecution of individuals who committed acts of violence against women. Of course, much progress still needs to be done on the issue. According to [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention](http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nisvs/), 20 women and men will be abused by an intimate parter per minute in the United States. And the issue reentered the public eye as a number of [professional athletes have been publicly accused of domestic violence in the past few years](http://time.com/3614432/nfl-domestic-violence-congress-troy-vincent/). “I would say that being in the bathroom and photographing had an enormous impact on my mind, as well as my career. I don’t think I would have become such a serious — and, at times, angry — photojournalist,” Ferrato told TIME in June. “Allowing me to take these pictures has helped explode the myths around domestic violence and show that if any woman is being beaten in her home, that’s an affront to all of us.” Read more about Ferrato [here](http://100photos.time.com/photos/donna-ferrato-behind-closed-doors), and watch the full video above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4575229/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence-photo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4575229/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence-photo/"},"headline":"This Photograph Put a Face on the Epidemic of Domestic Violence","datePublished":"2016-11-17T20:43:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:03:54.434Z","description":"And it’s one of TIME’s most influential photos of all time","url":"https://time.com/4575229/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence-photo/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc11d95e6e2f0f9b5/6988aef15f570f76ecb23538/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc11d95e6e2f0f9b5/6988aef15f570f76ecb23538/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"donna-ferrato-domestic-violence","caption":"","creditText":"Donna Ferrato","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4575229/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence-photo/","name":"This Photograph Put a Face on the Epidemic of Domestic Violence"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"100 Photographs: A Portrait of Domestic Violence","description":"The first published photo to record an act of domestic violence unfolding, Donna Ferrato’s shocking picture brought the issue of spousal abuse out of the shadows","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/DuwGVoV2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-06-01T15:03:54.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DuwGVoV2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4575229/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence-photo/","duration":"PT11M48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4575229/donna-ferrato-domestic-violence-photo/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```