Welcome to Part 2 of our Feburary 2025 Inspirational Interview with Elena Gallina, documentary photographer and economic researcher, based in the US.
Elena Gallina is a documentary photographer and economic researcher focused on feminist development. Having grown up in Kosovo in the aftermath of the ‘99 war and worked in refugee camps in Jordan and Palestine for several years, her work is inspired by lived experience and early childhood exposure. She studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, earning an MSc in Economic and Social History and an MBA in Social Impact, where her focus was on how sports and physical movement impact womxn’s liberation and recovery from sexual violence. Following her masters’ studies she went on to become the first Artist-in-Residence for the Rhodes Trust, spending a year creating a large-scale exhibition exploring Kosovar feminism through photography and interview.
Part two of Elena’s interview was published 2 February 2025.
All photos are courtesty of Elena Gallina.
6. Aside from your photography work, you are also an Economic Theorist to Cultural Heritage Without Borders-Kosovo, where the tenure of your residency has been spent documenting girlhood from the 60’s to the early 2000’s across Kosovo. Could you tell us about this project and how it fits with your overall gender-based violence (GBV) prevention work?
Çiknia Jonë: Our Girlhood is the project I returned home to undertake for my Art Residency with the Rhodes Trust. The project is centred around a childhood (girlhood) habit we had of collecting and trading paper napkins. The practice goes back generations. I wanted to a) document that piece of history and b) use it as a way of asking questions about what girlhood and womanhood mean to us. I did not want to focus specifically on GBV or VAW, but those are widespread phenomena here in Kosovo and I think related to our overall connection to patriarchy. For me this was an opportunity to look at something other than the violence and focus on some of the beauty and history of motherhood, sisterhood, friendship, etc. It’s about the love between women as a means of survival and really just a celebration of that. The interviews gave space for women to talk about the practice and bits of nostalgia, but also led to commentary on what it is to be a woman, both the difficulties and the joys.
7. One of the keys to eradicating VAW is to get men and boys on board efforts to do so. What do you think are the most effective ways of galvanising men and boys to help to end VAW?
Firstly, to make them aware how pervasive it is. My male friends and colleagues are often surprised when I recount my daily battle against harassment as VAW. I think many of them think it’s less common than it is.
Second, to encourage them to be active participants in its eradication, by way of actual action: speaking up, standing up, protesting, etc. I recently published an article describing “the harassment tax” where I try to put an economic number behind what harassment actually costs me and my society. In it I try to also ask men and boys to act in particular ways that will reduce my experiences of VAW.
As women, I think we need to learn to ask for that kind of help and solidarity. The idea that we always have to be “empowered,” “tough” and “on equal footing with men” when in actuality we aren’t and constantly face the threat of violence…it only makes sense to me that we ask them to help us out. We should all be fighting this together.
8.Tell us about your plans for the future. What campaigns, programmes, or projects do you have coming up in the next 5 years?
At the moment I am unsure. I am at a crossroads between photography and economics. I would love to keep making large-scale exhibitions, grow the campaign around Çiknia, keep using my feminist oral history and documentary photography skills to investigate pressing questions for women and girls. Simultaneously, that industry does not pay much and I am strict on my ethics around how I use photography. As such I am looking to do a PhD in econ to keep developing my skills there, hopefully continuing to contribute meaningfully on VAW reduction through economic policy and questions on sustainable development. Get back to me in a year and who knows which path I will be on! I anticipate I’ll always do a bit of both, chipping away at how we change things from various angles.
9. How can The Pixel Project’s supporters engage with and support efforts to stop violence against women?
Make it local. I think social media activism has a place for sure, but let’s not forget about our neighbours, our friends, our colleagues, our immediate community. I think if you’re reading this, look up for a second, pause, ask who is near, what’s around, and how you can invest, financially or time wise, in something right around the corner. Perhaps that’s someone directly in your circle in an abusive relationship whom you need to support, maybe that’s your city’s street campaign, maybe that’s starting your own advocacy or creative project to shed light on VAW. Maybe it’s just having good conversations with guys at work or in the gym, telling them about the impact of VAW. Whatever it is, think for a minute on what’s within reach and what you can do. Then go out and do it.
10. In your considered opinion, how can we end VAW for good?
If I had an answer to that, wow, that would be amazing! I’m not sure, though, and I’m hesitant to even and answer. I hope someone else gives us a blueprint. In the meantime, I’ll keep trying to contribute to its eradication in whatever ways I know how.
