It is one of the worst crimes that can be inflicted upon a human being. Rape survivors can often face a wall of silence, indifference or even blame from their loved ones and communities after suffering at the hands of a traumatic sexual assault.

But Grace Brown, a 21-year-old photography student at the School for Visual Arts has embarked upon a project designed to give a voice back to victims of sexual assaults by empowering them with the words of their attackers.

Her campaign entitled ‘Project Unbreakable’, started in October 2011 and features photos of sexual assault victims holding cards with things their vile attackers said to them written on them.

She says that her reason for starting the project is that she wants it to spread awareness of issues involved in sexual assaults.

In a previous Huffington Post interview she said: “‘I created Project Unbreakable as a way of spreading awareness to an issue that isn’t talked about anywhere near as much as it should be.”

The stories address many issues other than the crimes themselves, including what it took for the victims to come forward and how they were received by their families and authorities once they told them their stories.

Grace commented: ‘It’s important that survivors have access to everything they need — counselors, support groups, and most of all, valid and correct information about their rights, if the assault happened on a college campus,’ Brown said. As for the perpetrators – I think more needs to be done when it comes to mandatory presentations about sexual assault.”

We have featured some of the photographs included as part of her project below.

Brown’s project also highlights the link between sexualised images of women with sexual assault.