PORTRAITS / HEADSHOTS
Lola Maria Quistadio Arroyo, 86, was 12 years old when she was snatched from her village and sexually enslaved for three months in Roxas City, Philippines, by the Japanese Imperial Army soldiers during World War II. Arroyo died on October 15, 2020. In a testimony taken in April 1998, Arroyo described how the Japanese soldiers were initially friendly with the villagers, but became mean after their captain was killed by a guerrilla. One day they gathered the villagers, killing anyone who protested. She saw through a window her neighbor's baby thrown in the air and impaled with a bayonet. The terrified Arroyo was then taken to the garrison with her brother, who was forced to carry the family's pig, which the Japanese had killed. Upon arrival, with no further need of him, they beat him to death. She was then locked in a room where two soldiers at a time would take turns holding her down and raping her at all hours of the day and night. She spit in their faces and fought, and in return they laughed as they kicked and slapped her. Eventually she didn't have the strength to fight them off. During the days she was made to cook and clean, and at night, she would suffer their torturous abuse. After three months, she noticed the Japanese loading hastily into their vehicles and the guards had left their posts, so she scrambled through an escape tunnel and was reunited with her parents. Arroyo met and married David Arroyo who was loving and understanding of her past. They had seven children, but he became abusive in his later years, beating her with wooden planks or his fists, and blaming her for being victimized by the Japanese until his passing in 1997. In her old age, Arroyo had dementia, was frail and cared for by her daughter Lolita Arroyo Acuyong. She suffered from a Herpes infection that destroyed most of her hearing. Photo taken on May 28, 2019.
When Ferasse Jasim's young sister, Shaima, welcomed him home, she screamed in horror to see her brother nearly dead from torture, in Baghdad, Iraq, on April 28, 2003. His skin was burned off his feet and much of his body for having evaded military duty. She tends to him daily watching his strength return, glad for the end of Saddam Hussein's regime and his cruelty.
Portrait of actor Viggo Mortensen.
The light in her eyes belies her pageboy cut, showing a knowledge about life beyond her years. Her name is Korypuma Mapuna. Korypuma, 13, of Moscow, Russia, has watched members of her family destroy themselves with alcohol and she vows she will one day become a psychologist.
Elvis Smith was laying concrete with Robert Peete in Reisterstown, Maryland, last December 20 when a confrontation ensued with Brandon Troy Higgs, whose dog walked through the wet concrete. Higgs, a very active white supremacist, now faces murder, assault, hate crime and concealed weapon charges, for the incident, which left Smith with a shattered tibia after he was shot in the leg. Smith is photographed in Baltimore, Md., on October 7, 2019.
He shuffled around a north Texas law office where he worked quietly and no one spoke his name. He was the castaway of his family who abused him physically and sexually for years until finally Child Protective Services rescued him.
Portrait of actor Bruce Willis.
“I thought, this is my death.” Iman Eaziden Bakr, 17, raised her chin defiantly, her eyes glistening in the dim light. “I felt like a chicken being roasted. I will never forget the torture of my skin; it was so painful—as if my insides were being exposed.” Her tea had long ago gone cold as she recounted the day on January 14, 2007 when she poured kerosene on her body and set herself on fire. She had hoped that her act of sacrifice would bring peace to her family whom she described as contentious.
Lola Pilar Quilantang Galang, 83, survived the raid on their village of Mapaniqui in Pampanga by the Japanese Imperial Army on November 23, 1944. On that day, Galang and more than 100 other girls and women, were marched to the Bahay Na Pula, also known as the Red House, and were systematically raped by the Japanese forces as they retreated from the country at the end of World War II. Galang was 9 years old at the time of the assaults and even today can barely acknowledge the atrocities she endured. "They were just cuddling us, it wasn't consummated, just caressing because we were too young," Galang said. Yet, as she continued recounting her story, "My body bled then, and how could I have the strength? My body was a total wreck. I believe that was still rape. You can truly see that because there was blood coming from my...my body was destroyed. There was blood all over my clothes. They did it repeatedly. My body was ravaged before I was released." Galang accepted an arranged marriage, and she and husband Oscar Galang would eventually have nine children together, and now more than 40 grandchildren and great grandchildren. Through the years, Oscar Galang would remind his wife, "You are just a leftover of the Japanese." "Why would I get mad?" asked Galang. "It really happened."
Portrait of Cheryl Kreiser.
John Davidson, former Assistant Managing Editor of Visuals of The Dallas Morning News.
Portrait of former Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill who oversaw some 210 prosecutors who prosecuted almost 96,000 cases annually in Texas.
Jerry Taylor, president of the Niskanen Center, is a conservative libertarian who supports climate change solutions. He is photographed with a portrait of President Nelson Rockefeller in his office in Washington, D.C., on Friday, November 15, 2019.
Portrait of Kenneth Manning, cybersecurity analyst.
She waits by the dusty road, anxious to play her part as an angel in the Santacruzan procession so she can give honor to her family. Katrina Mayor's mother paid for a professional beautician to paint her five-year-old daughter's face and nails so that she might be more perfect in the eyes of God. Philippines
Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the longest-serving Republican senator in the United States, will be retiring at the end of the year. Photo taken on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on October 22, 2018.
"Maybe they will see my face, be scared, and surrender," said 21-year-old Marine Steve Fountain with a small smile gleaming behind his warrior face paint during the Iraq invasion of 2003.