Hi, my name is Luba and I'm a professional photographer; I'm trying to raise money to buy back a camera for myself after my camera was lost in January while I was trying to escape a sexual assault.

In case you are wondering how that happened, I shall explain, semi-reluctantly, but I think that if people are going to help out then they should know the story.

I was sort of seeing somebody at the end of 2024. I didn't particularly like this person and he was somebody that I considered to be Albany's lowest caste member. However, the majority of my friends in Albany had stopped being my friend and this guy was one of the only people that I had left in the city to hang out with me. Towards the end of January 2025, he invited me over to a friend's house. We hung out all night and it was around 3am and I was tired and ready to go home, so I asked if we could leave. He started disrespectfully and full of hostility yelling at me and saying something along the lines of, "We'll go when I WANT to go!" It wasn't so much what was said, so much the way he said it and the intention behind it. I felt shocked, disrespected, and embarrassed. I thought to myself that I don't want to be one of those girls whose boyfriend rudely talks shit to them and yells at them in front of other people and they just accept fate. I decided, fuck this, I'll just walk home myself and I left. There were two other people there and nobody tried to stop me.

This was, honestly, a big mistake. It was January and I was in Albany, NY, where the temperatures that night were below freezing. I think it might've been around 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The busses had stopped running at 1230am and would not start running again until 530am. I was very ill-prepared for the weather. I was wearing a short skirt and thigh-high socks and a coat heavy enough only for if the temperature were in the 40s. Not only that, but I was in one of the worst neighborhoods in Albany. I was off Ontario Street towards Tivoli park.

I got about one block away from where I'd just left before I realized that I would not be able to walk the remaining 3 miles back to my house that night. I was too cold. And I had no money. I couldn't call an uber or anything like that.

I saw two men standing at the corner and I approached them and pleaded, "Hi, guys, I'm stranded and I'm really sorry, but can you guys please help me call an Uber home or give me a ride or SOMETHING. I'm really sorry, but I don't have any money on me." One of the guys said, don't worry about it, come with me. I followed both of them to a squat house just seconds away from where I'd met them. I guess they were offering me shelter or something. It wasn't ideal, but it'll do for now, I guess, I thought. The guy who took me to the squat bought drugs from the other guy, then the other guy left.

Once it was me and the other guy, after he did the drugs he just bought, he started forcing his hand down my skirt. I screamed, "NO!" and "STOP!" and tried as hard as my muscles would allow to force his hand away from my crotch. He repeatedly with force was trying to reach my vagina, push past my protecting hand, regardless of the fact that I very clearly did not anything to do with this. I yelled very loudly for him to stop, I was terrified. At some point, he paused and said, "I'll be right back," and he left the squat house.

At this point, I was like, I gotta get out of here now before he gets back! I grabbed my purse and ran out of the building and ran back to the apartment from which I'd just left, embarrassed that I had to come back after walking out because I had no resources to get home and it was dangerous to be outside. I realized after being back for about 5 minutes that my backpack with the camera was missing! Turns out that I'd brought it with me and left it back at that cursed squat house! I freaked out and ran back to try to find the squat house, so that I could grab my camera. But I couldn't remember which house it was! And then the guy I had come with was finally actually leaving in an Uber and I didn't want to get stuck in that part of town, so I left with him, back to my apartment, without my camera.

I was absolutely devastated and I cried all morning. I stopped seeing the guy I'd been seeing after this happened, especially after the expressed ambivalence from him and after he started yelling at me in my apartment over random bullshit after I'd just lost the most important thing to me in my life. I cried that morning and I continued to cry all next week. I couldn't believe that this had happened to me.

I am, very fortunately, a long ways away from that day and a long ways away from that place! I am very happy that I live in New Orleans and all my friends here are wonderful, blessed people and they love me and want to see me win.

But, unfortunately, I have not been able to afford buying back a camera since that happened. It's been almost 8 months that I have been without a DSLR camera and although I have continued my education in photography via reading textbooks and learning how to use professional editing software to edit my photos, I have been completely unable to build my portfolio or book jobs. Losing my camera has put my photography career at a complete standstill.

So, I'm calling on you guys to please help me out so that I can buy a new used camera! The camera that got stolen was a Canon T7i with a 50mm 1.8 lens. I'd gotten it as part of a bundle that included two other lenses, a camera backpack, and a few other accessories. That all cost me only $530-something dollars and it was a DEAL. I've been looking online at a few other bundles in that price range. Currently, I have my eyes on a bundle that includes a Canon T6i and four other lenses!! If that ends up being bought out, then I'll get a different bundle package. But, I've decided that it's time to stop waiting and get what I want now, so that I can build my portfolio in time for the busy season in New Orleans.

When I had bought the Canon T7i back in 2024, it literally felt as though God had smiled on me and it absolutely broke my heart to lose something that felt like it had been given to me by God.

Please, if you can, donate to my GoFund Me so that I can buy back the camera God had intended for me to have, and so that I can finally put that terrible experience behind me and triumph over adversity and evil.

Thank you so much in advanced and I greatly appreciate any and all donations. <3