Often the bonds that entrap and enslave are an entangling web rather than a locked door, spun from the same sinister thread of twisted manipulation. The trafficking of human souls is not confined to the ‘other’ of distant locked basements but bleeds red into the day to day of our lives, we pass by the trafficked soul as we walk along the street or stop into a store. This thread serves as a testament to the nature of many trafficking cases, presenting a barrier at once both permeable and yet ensnaring. Even if the victim is removed from the situation, where lock and key are no more, many still run back to their trafficker as the web of manipulation draws them to the only ‘safe space’ they know. The control doesn’t stop at where they can and cannot go but tangles it’s way into the corners of their mind, affecting their lives forever. The shoes mark a portrait all the more relatable and realistic, challenging the upper-middle class’s perception of the trafficked soul. One might own or even be wearing the pair they see before them, and therefore see themselves entangled alongside these uncountable victims, feel the suffocating constriction of the thread surrounding, and know the immense weight of the sin couched solely in this issue

       - Constricted Souls