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 Winner Book of the Year
from the Independent Publisher's Group (IPPY)
Winner Nautilus Book Award
Women in Shadow and Light:
Journeys from Abuse to Healing by Jan
Goff-LaFontaine. Forty women—ages nineteen to ninety-five—bared
all to express their triumph over trauma. In this daring approach, fine
art black and white photography combines with moving interviews to
portray the essence of each woman’s journey from the violence of abuse
to transformation and healing. This is the most hope-filled book you
will ever read about abuse and recovery.
Throughout my life I have carried tremendous shame and emotional pain
around the physical abuse and rapes that happened to me from my
childhood to my mid-twenties. At 52 years old, I still had not mustered
the courage to address the abuse. When I discovered Jan's book
Women in Shadow and Light, I couldn't put it down. A heavy
lid cracked opened and tremendous emotion broke through. Feeling
connected to the women in the book helped me realize I was not alone.
This began my healing journey. This inspired book is a must-read for
women survivors of abuse. Thank you, Jan, for this beautiful and
powerful gift you have given us.—a reader in California Jan Goff-LaFontaine’s
came up with a revolutionary idea: that reconnecting abused women with
their sense of beauty—achieved through fine art photography—would assist
them in throwing off the shame that abuse so often causes.
Goff-LaFontaine says, “Helping abused women rebuild their self-esteem, I
have watched the wounded become healers. My new workshops utilize
digital cameras to help abuse survivors find the beauty within
themselves. I’ve discovered this method to be empowering and liberating
for abuse survivors.”
"I’d like to hold out hope to other women…to
let them know they aren’t alone; they aren’t the only ones these
things happened to, and they can survive."—Ellie
 Begun
as a photography exhibit, Out of the Shadows,
the project started in rural Door County, Wisconsin, but eventually led
Goff-LaFontaine to subjects across the nation as she sought to complete
Women in Shadow and Light. The subjects are women who have
experienced every economic situation from homelessness to the champagne
lifestyle; they span many ethnicities and ages; they are the famous—such
as Laura Davis, co-author of Courage to Heal—to the obscure—like
the “ordinary” 62-year-old farm wife who left her abusive marriage. Each
woman helped create her portrait as a personal symbol of healing, often
focusing on one aspect of her body she felt was most affected in the
healing process.
Hardcover w/ dust jacket
10" x 8"; 160 pages
Creative Minds Press
$35.00 U.S. + $4.50 shipping and handling
All orders shipped FedEx Ground
for 2-Day or Overnight shipments, contact us)
 You can order this book now and have it autographed by Jan
Goff-LaFontaine!
Pay Pal
Or order from Amazon.com
See this page for Resources and
Websites to help abused women.
See this page for other Books
helpful to abused women
"Thank you for the work you do," Dr. Maya Angelou.
Jan was recently honored for her work assisting abused women. She was
honored with the 2006 "Friend of Victims" by award by HELP of Door
County (WI).
[A] compilation of powerful words and images that hit the reader
kapow—right where they should, in the spirit. It's enough to
send a person soaring.—Connie Gotsch, host of “Write On Four Corners,”
KSJE
Click Here For
More Reviews and Articles
To read evaluations from Jan's speaking
engagements, workshops and seminars, please see
this page.
"The interview was really the naked part for me; sharing that
very vulnerable part of me was terrifying. The photograph was an
integral part of the healing process. To have someone photograph me in
beautiful surroundings, filled with lovely natural light, and interested
in creating from my shape a beautiful composition. . . well, for the
first time in years, I actually felt beautiful. When I look at the
photograph I feel peaceful and strong."—Jeanne
Praise from Women's Support Providers and Other Helpers
 Deborah
Shepherd, Executive Director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual
Assault (NJCASA) called said she and her board “love the book…. Women in
Shadow and Light is a beautiful, moving, and powerful testament to the
courage of survivors everywhere."—NJCASA
not only reviewed it in their newsletter, but purchased fifty copies for
a fundraiser.
Many
of the women in the project connected to each other through HELP of Door
County, a domestic violence services agency. As photography exhibit Out of the Shadows
and the subsequent book Women in Shadow and Light took on a life
of their own, HELP’s life began to mirror the project’s life. We
were led to look at our collective capacity for healing and hope and how
women, who sought services from us, when they told us they were ready,
could be invited to continue their journey into new places perhaps never
dreamed of before."—Allin Walker, Director, HELP
of Door County
"Getting abused women's stories out is crucial, because it helps victims
begin to heal and rebuild self-esteem and encourages other to come
forward to seek help. It's really important, what she's done here, and
the marvelous photographs are a bonus," says Susan Rautine, who works
part time as a counselor at a women's shelter in Monterey County. “The
pictures show real women, rather than stylized versions of women or
women as art forms or objects, she said. "I think that's why they
work."—from the
Monterey County Herald article, 4/12/05
"Thanks for the beautiful
work. I plan on getting several copies...one for my own desk and
several to share with friends who will appreciate its beauty and the
possibility of resurrection in their own lives."—Maggie
Wellert, who gave a sermon based on Women in Shadow and Light
March 13, 2005 ("Do You Believe This?") at Sister Bay Moravian Church
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