A Photographer Kidnapped in Mexico

Part 1

Note: this telling of real events includes strong language and descriptions of torture including sexual assault.

The cartilage connecting my ribs to my sternum is badly bruised after one of the men hit me in the chest with the butt of an AK-47.

Self portrait of the author, taken in Western New York.

I’d been forced to stand against a wall and my back took as much of a blow as my rib cage. There is…