Anne Plaisance
Wonder Women
2018 – Ongoing
Wonder Women is a photographic series honoring survivors of domestic violence—not as victims, but as architects of their own rebirth.
Created in collaboration with women who left abusive environments, the portraits conceal their identities while revealing something deeper: presence, dignity, and unshakeable resilience. Masks become symbols—not of hiding—but of protection, transition, and self-authorship.
The project emerged from my work inside domestic violence shelters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Listening to survivors’ stories, I recognized a shared pattern of psychological manipulation—gaslighting, coercive control, love-bombing—forms of violence that often remain invisible. Through photography, I sought to make visible what culture frequently minimizes.
Each image stands at the threshold between rupture and reclamation.
Wonder Women does not center trauma. It centers on awakening.
It invites viewers to reconsider strength—not as loud heroism, but as the quiet courage of women who choose themselves.
TAKE PART: Spend a moment with one portrait. Notice what strength looks like to you, then share a few words about what resilience means in your own life or community.
Parfums
2024
My work focuses on female empowerment and I use art to channel my gratitude, love and greed for life whilst at the same time exploring my fears and anger against social injustice.
These series of perfumes show the multiple manipulation techniques used by abusers, giving a visible form to something intangible that is hard to define and recognise, complex as the elaboration of a perfume, referring also to the physical and chemical trauma bond created with victims.
The sense of smell is closely linked to memory. The group of brain areas that are best known for processing emotions, learning, and memory also process odours.
TAKE PART: Add a word or sentence expressing a feeling, experience or message of hope and strength to support victims and survivors of gender-based violence.
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