Protecting People Comes Before Public Exposure

At Ny Trano Manga (The Blue House) we work with women and girls in sensitive or vulnerable circumstances. As a matter of practice we do not publish personal stories that identify them, and we do not ask them for permission to do so.

Asking creates pressure of its own. A woman who is receiving shelter and support is not in a free position to decline a request from the organization providing it, and the value of an image or a story to us is never a reason to place her in that position.

Consent matters, and our Bylaws require it before any photograph, personal story, or identifying information is published. But consent given under pressure, dependency, or distress is not meaningful consent, and consent given now cannot account for what publication may mean years from now.

So we also ask whether the exposure is necessary at all, whether the person can realistically understand what publication would mean, and whether it could create risk later.

The same questions apply with more weight to children. A parent or guardian may consent, but the child’s privacy, safety, and future come before the communications or fundraising value of any image or story.

We use authentic documentation from the field, in a measured, respectful, and contextual way. We prefer images that show people with dignity and agency in the course of ordinary life, rather than through humiliation, extreme distress, or unnecessary personal exposure, and we do not publish detail that is not needed to understand the work.

If an image, a detail, or a story would create risk, compromise privacy, or turn a difficult experience into a marketing device, we do not use it.