A client thought I would be perfect to
photograph Tina, I can understand why and in some ways I was but I
struggled to find a subtle way to approach the subject. She was badly scarred
and blinded and although the circumstances that led to her deformation are
informed by an accompanying text, the image alone offers no nuance. In fact,
the injury if anything is a distraction from the delicate responses to the
camera that can betray a subject’s humanity.
The brutality meted out on Tina’s face by
her boyfriend invoked the memory of a beaten dog I saw in a tabloid newspaper
the previous day. Tragically, her visual identity now is more of an expression
of her attacker’s personality, rather than any expression of her own. The scarring
is a distraction and constant reminder of a single terrible moment infecting
her present; an identity of the violence.
Physical disabilities offer a similar
complexity in visual representation. Cerebral Palsy is represented by
distortions and involuntary movement that unfairly define a person. It offers a
visual narrative disconnected from the recognized indicators of emotion
that are more easily read in the ‘able bodied’. I have had issues with
my portrait of ‘Naked Man Turning with Walking Stick’ for this reason; all my other images are mostly a readable response to the
camera so it took sometime to justify its inclusion with the other works.
At a school in the UK for severely disabled
young people the students have minimal amount of movement, they require the
highest levels of care and their life expectancy is short. Here is a work in
series of them playing with me - 'Boys Playing Outside Sheltered Accommodation.' I felt a strong emotional connection with one of the boys and may have embarrassed him a
little. Its very hard to see beyond the chair and the physical aberration to reach the person but that is the point.
In the genius book ‘On Photography’, Susan Sontag wrote “In photographing dwarfs, you don't get
majesty and beauty. You get dwarfs.” I understand the context but I think this is the only clumsy and stupid
thing she ever said. We 'choose' to photograph the dwarf.
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| Boy with Hollyhocks #1, from series 'Boys Playing Outside Sheltered Accommodation' © Richard Ansett |
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| Boy with Hollyhocks #2, from series 'Boys Playing Outside Sheltered Accommodation' © Richard Ansett |
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