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DEBORAH COPAKEN

Writer / Photographer

  • HOME
  • Contact
  • Bio
  • SUBSTACK
  • Upcoming events
  • Purchase Prints
  • ABORTION T-SHIRTS
  • Tip Jar / Venmo

LADYPARTS

BOOKS

PHOTOJOURNALISM

ESSAYS / JOURNALISM

S E L E C T E D   L I N K S

Ladyparts, the Substack publication

At 58, I have the spine of an 80-year-old. Navigating osteoporosis has been difficult and expensiveThe Guardian

America’s Message to Families With Loved Ones Suffering From Dementia: You’re on Your OwnThe Daily Beast (winner of the 2024 Deadline Award)

Nora Ephron’s Three Rules for Middle-Aged HappinessThe Atlantic

I’m a Writer on Emily in Paris: I May Destroy You Deserved a Golden Globe NominationThe Guardian

Did COVID-19 Mess Up My Heart?The Atlantic

On Top of Everything Else, My Dog DiedThe Atlantic

How Are Parents Supposed to Deal With Joint Custody Right Now?The Atlantic

My Whole Household Has COVID-19The Atlantic

The Glorious Messy Life Of Liz WurtzelThe Atlantic

What Menopause Does to Women’s BrainsThe Atlantic

My Rapist ApologizedThe Atlantic

Three Children, Two AbortionsThe Atlantic

How To Lose Your Job From Sexual Harassment in 33 Easy StepsThe Atlantic

The DIY DivorceThe Atlantic

I Spent $925 on a Fake Canada Goose CoatThe Atlantic

Finding a Way Through an Unspeakable LossThe Atlantic

What I Learned About Life at my 30th College ReunionThe Atlantic

What Sea Lice Taught Me About LifeThe Atlantic

Stage MotherhoodThe New Yorker

A Life-Altering Sock DrawerThe New Yorker

My So-Called Post-Feminist Life in Arts and LettersThe Nation

Entering the Mind of My Rapist: An Exercise in Extreme EmpathyThe Nation

Exploring the Link Between Menopause and Alzheimer’sMedium

How One Woman Found Healing in the HimalayasOprah.com

The Key to Surviving Change Is Accepting That It's InevitableOprah.com

Modern Love: When Cupid is A Prying JournalistNew York Times

Modern Love: La Vie en Rose, the Takeout VersionNew York Times

Sunday Book Review Essay: Only Yesterday New York Times

Her Roman HolidayNew York Times

Lives: King of the MountainNew York Times Magazine

Op-Ed: My Marriage Was Over. Why Couldn’t I Get My Old Name BackWashington Post

Book Review: ‘Unrequited: Women and Romantic Obsession,’ by Lisa A. PhillipsThe Washington Post

How I Got Rejected from a Job at the Container StoreForbes

Darren Star Channels His Seductive Shows for This Hamptons HideawayGalerie Magazine

The Cure for a Broken Heart? Naked YogaThe Observer

All the Young Dudes  The Observer

People Suck—and They Don't  The Observer

Warrior Women: When Life Turns Upside Down, There’s Safety—And Strength—In NumbersThe Observer

Revisiting Hemingway, Paris, A Son and His Traumatized Roommates in the Wake of ISISThe Observer

Principal of Despair: A School Testing Scandal and a SuicideThe Observer

Uncharted Territory: A Mother of Three Navigates the World of the Newly SingleThe Observer

The Best Part of Middle Age: Letting Go of ShameThe Observer

Looking for Love, Ending Up in a WarWall Street Journal

Op-Ed: To Sanitize Photos is to Distort HistoryReuters

Adulthood in the U.S. Has Nothing to Do with Age AnymoreQuartz

How Facebook Saved My Son's LifeSlate

The Night After the Serial Rapist Was CaughtSlate

The Plumber, The Lawyer and the CarpenterThe Forward

Costa Rica Treehouse AdventureTravel & Leisure

Product Testing for Real People (all columns)  Financial Times

After the Divorce  Glamour

I Went in For A Lumpectomy and Came Out A Lottery WinnerEDH

Their Father's Daughters  Tue/Night

New York City, Emptied by VirusMedium

The Family Doctor and the PlagueMedium

Ladyparts: A Story of Near DeathMedium

I Was Suspended from Facebook for my #MeToo PostMedium

Selling My Engagement Ring: A Love StoryMedium

How To Write an Anti-Feminist Profile in Six Easy StepsMedium

How'd You Get That Shot?Medium

TV / VIDEO

SCREENWRITING

ART

CORPORATE / ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS

If you're looking to update your website or simply need corporate headshots that go beyond the floating-head-on-white-seamless, please feel free to get in touch. We can shoot an entire office of 20 employees in one day or 40 in two days, etc. 

PARTY PHOTOS

Photos of your party shot photojournalism style: with attitude, aesthetics, proper framing, energy, and LIFE! Please get in touch via the contact page for rates and bookings.

AUTHOR / ACTOR HEADSHOTS

I can come to you, you can come to me, we use as much natural light as possible, and I promise it'll be fun and easy.  And yes, I can also recommend an awesome make-up artist who's reasonable. 

Rates: $850 flat fee (plus travel expenses, if I come to you — parking plus $100 extra in roundtrip travel time, if you are local) for the shoot itself, for an online gallery of images, and for one retouched headshot. Each additional retouched portrait will cost an additional $75 per image.

FAMILIES/KIDS

TRAVEL

FLORA

PRE-INTERNET TEARSHEETS - PHOTOJOURNALISM

WOMANHOOD

Work in progress

SHOOTING BACK

Some photos from my college thesis, "Shooting Back," winner of a Hoopes Prize and nominated for a W. Eugene Smith Fund award in 1988. The thesis was spurred by having endured a number of assaults while a college student, everything from being kicked unconscious in the middle of Harvard Square while walking home from the library to fending off an attempted sexual assault by a stranger in my dorm room to armed robbery, twice, and more. The idea was simple: I'd go out into the streets of Boston, Philadelphia and New York where women were considered the most vulnerable back in the mid-80's: The Combat Zone, South Philly, and Times Square. There, whenever a man would accost me with a, "Hey, baby, wanna get it on?" I'd answer, "No, thank you, but I would like to shoot your photo." I used one lens and one lens only: a 28 millimeter Nikon lens, meaning many of these portraits had to be shot with the camera held inches from the subject's face.

LADYPARTS

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BOOKS

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PHOTOJOURNALISM

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ESSAYS / JOURNALISM

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TV / VIDEO

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SCREENWRITING

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ART

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CORPORATE / ENVIRONMENTAL PORTRAITS

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PARTY PHOTOS

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AUTHOR / ACTOR HEADSHOTS

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FAMILIES/KIDS

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TRAVEL

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FLORA

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PRE-INTERNET TEARSHEETS - PHOTOJOURNALISM

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WOMANHOOD

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SHOOTING BACK

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