Through photos and videos, a local journalist profiles female athletes in Ecuador and shares their stories. Her goal: to inspire other women worldwide who want to play sports.
By Michael Tomko
“Sport has the power to unite people in a way little else can. Sport can create hope where there was once only despair … It laughs in the face of discrimination. Sport speaks to people in a language they can understand.” — Nelson Mandela
Photographer Elizabeth Stanton, 34, took Nelson Mandela’s words to heart. In the spring of 2002, she founded the Through Her Eyes Project, a nonprofit that profiles women athletes in developing countries through photography and short, documentary-style videos. “I wanted to share these stories and have a father look at it and think, ‘Wow, my daughter could be a champion’,” Stanton says. She finished her first major project in summer 2011, when she presented six exhibits across Ecuador of 50 large-scale photographs and 75 short videos of Ecuadorian women playing sports.
Stanton grew up admiring soccer star Mia Hamm, and played volleyball, soccer and basketball in Evanston. While working as a reporter for the Tico Times in San Jose, Costa Rica, she noticed little promotion of female athletes in the local daily newspapers. After a year there, she returned to Chicago as a full-time stringer for The New York Times and started the project.
Currently, she is preparing for her first exhibit in Chicago of the work she produced in Ecuador. The images, some in black and white with others in color, highlight women playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, track and field, kayaking, weight lifting, surfing and other sports. The exhibit will run from June 1 to 3 at the Chicago Art Department, 1932 S. Halsted St.
At the Chicago exhibit, Stanton hopes to raise money to continue the project. “In an ideal world … I would pick one country in Africa, I’d pick a country in Asia, I’d pick a country in the Middle East … maybe turn it into a more of a global exhibit.”
To learn more about the Through Her Eyes Project Visit:
Websites: http://www.throughhereyes.org/
http://throughhereyesproject.tumblr.com/
Contact Elizabeth at:
Twitter: @throughhereyes1
Email: estanton@throughhereyes.org
