Another photographer who focuses on disability, Bruckert has chosen to show the disabled body as an object of desire, one that is beautiful and erotic. The photographer says of this work: “For decades there have been these dreadful pictures of us (disabled) in the media – the small, pitiable, disabled person in a corner — often badly photographed. This was always a terrible thing for me, and a sort of motivator that compelled me to try and do way with these belittling “hospital pictures” as I used to call them.” Continue reading “Rasso Bruckert, Perfect Imperfection”
Category: Disability Research
The Beauty and the Freak
Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s article draws parallels between the visual display of freaks and bathing beauties, claiming that they are part of the same system of ‘body criticism’ that serves to verify the social status quo and define the position of ‘normal citizen’ in opposition to either end of the spectrum. Continue reading “The Beauty and the Freak”
Freaks, circus performers – early representations
It has been pointed out (Barnes 2003) that people with ‘perceived abnormalities’ have provided a source of entertainment to non-disabled people throughout history, from blind musicians in ancient Egypt and ‘deformed slaves’ as entertainers in Greece and Rome, through the court jesters and fools of mediaeval Europe, right up to the freak shows and exhibitions of the industrial era. Continue reading “Freaks, circus performers – early representations”
Lewis Hine
As part of his activist series on child labour, Hine photographed children who had fallen victim to the machinery they had been operating. This work obviously fits in with his broader campaign at the time which was to put an end to exploitation of children by factory owners. The children had been mutilated by the machines, having fingers or limbs ripped out or crushed as a result of lapse in concentration or more commonly falling asleep due to overwork. Continue reading “Lewis Hine”
Sebastião Salgado, The End of Polio
While I was searching for Hine’s images of disabled people, I came across the publication The Body At Risk by Carol Squiers, which not only has many of the Hine pictures of child labourers and occupational victims, but also made reference to Salgado’s images of the eradication of poliomyelitis. Although I have looked at Salgado’s work before, and even watched a couple of documentaries on him, I had never even heard of this series of pictures. Continue reading “Sebastião Salgado, The End of Polio”
Other mass media portrayals of disability
On the topic of disability as social construction, this short video from Turkish social services Engelleri Kaldır Hareketi says it all. We are treated to roles reversed, where able-bodied people are the exception and the world is designed with disabled people in mind. Continue reading “Other mass media portrayals of disability”
Visual Rhetorics of Disability in Popular Photography
“The history of disabled people in the Western world is in part the history of being on display, of being visually conspicuous while politically and socially erased.” (2002, p 56)
Garland Thomson analyses the way the disabled body has always been the object of people’s stares, from being exhibited as prodigies or ill omens in antiquity, through the subjects of miraculous cures in Christianity, objects of exotica and ridicule from mediaeval times right up to the sideshow exhibits of the early industrial era, and finally the displayed case study in the medical sciences: “Disabled people have variously been objects of awe, scorn, terror, delight, inspiration, pity, laughter, or fascination-but they have always been stared at” (56). Continue reading “Visual Rhetorics of Disability in Popular Photography”
Disability in film
In an article that looks at how disability is represented in film, Tom Shakespeare (1999) observes that the “impairment is made the most important thing” while the disabled characters themselves are “objectified and distanced from the audience”. He goes on:
“The use of disability as character trait, plot device, or as atmosphere is a lazy short-cut. These representations are not accurate or fair reflections of the actual experience of disabled people. Such stereotypes reinforce negative attitudes towards disabled people, and ignorance about the nature of disability.” (Shakespeare, 1999) Continue reading “Disability in film”
Disability and the right to life
“if able-bodied society were to accept that those with disabilities are equal human beings with rights, they would also have to abandon the notion that screening and abortion are benefits to society, and that the earlier a handicapped person is killed off the better for all concerned.” (Alison Davis 1987, p. 287)
“the decision to abort a fetus may well be grounded in the insight that the forms of social and economic support needed to make that life livable are lacking.” (Judith Butler 2009, p 22) Continue reading “Disability and the right to life”
Galton and Eugenics
“The word eugenics was coined in 1883 by the British writer and pioneer of statistics, Sir Francis Galton (1820-1911), and defined as the “improvement or repair of the qualities of future generations, either physically or mentally”. For Galton, the chief criterion of improvement was ‘civic worthiness’, or the value of a person to the community. Galton understood worthiness to include ‘physique’ (including good health), ‘ability’ and ‘character,’ and in his Hereditary Genius of 1869 argued that ’eminence’ in lawyers, statesmen, scientists, writers, musicians, scholars – and even wrestlers – was hereditary.” (Badcock, 2003) Continue reading “Galton and Eugenics”
Carl Whetham photography 