On this month's cover is what photographer Kay Chernush calls a "re-imaging"-an enhanced portrait of a victim of human trafficking entitled Counting Down. The problem of human trafficking worldwide and within our borders, as well as the plight of its victims, is examined in this month's powerful feature article, "The Role of the Nurse in Combating Human Trafficking" by Donna Sabella.
Chernush has been working in the area of human trafficking since 2005. Wanting to make "visually compelling images" that didn't exploit, humiliate, or further endanger the people involved, she uses a technique that starts with a "formal portrait" and involves the addition of different images, other photographs, acetate overlays, or scans of various elements on the computer. About creating the portrait on our cover, she says, "blotting out the face [is a] technique used to hide the identity of minor girls. But it is also used to show the obliteration of personhood experienced by this young woman in her gilded cage."
Chernush's artwork appears in several permanent collections, including that of the World Bank, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and the National Institutes of Health. Her work has also been featured in the Smithsonian Magazine. Chernush is based in Washington, DC, but travels the world to find that "transforming moment." To see more of her work, go to http://www.kaychernush.com.-Alison Bulman, senior editorial coordinator