Photography

Some thirty billion photographs were uploaded to Facebook in 2009. We live in the world, as the photographer, curator and critic John Szarkowski memorably pointed out, where there are more photographs than bricks. At the same time, photography continues to reconfigure itself. Its interaction with a world changing at warp speed brings complex interests into play. Fictitious realities promulgated by photo-manipulation trip us at the first hurdle. Distress comes in daily doses via feeds from the front-line of war. A maturing market for intrusive celebrity imagery has led us to expect access to the private emotions of strangers as a matter of course.

Down’s syndrome, a chromosomal condition often associated with visible and easily recognisable facial characteristics, is a subject matter where outside of the areas of medical and charity based imagery there has been little serious photographic enquiry. The photographers represented here have taken their own experience as the subject of their art and they do this to both as a form of self expression and also to challenge the stereotypical images that exist in the world that are one dimensional and do not show the complexity of people with this condition. When we allow ourself to see anothers complexity we see them as human and so we may relate and respect them differently. The photographers personal experience and deep understanding means they can see people with Down’s syndrome as real people not as exotic subjects to be exploited.

Beyond the issues of Down’s syndrome itself, this project is particularly pertinent in an image saturated culture where the appearance of the individual holds such high currency. ‘Beauty’ and ‘good’ are elastic concepts. We see not only with our eyes, but with all that we are and all that our culture is. We tend to rely on assumptions gleaned from previous experience. Photography represented here asks us to question the society that we have created and how this is reflected in the narrowness of mainstream representations of those considered beautiful and valuable.

Susan Andrews, Lucy Davies, Asya Gefter, Fiona Yaron-Field

Susan Andrews – Senior Lecturer in Photography at London Metropolitan University
Lucy Davies – Photography Critic and Picture Editor at Daily Telegraph
Asya Gefter – Photographer, Initiator of ‘Looking both ways’ project
Fiona Yaron-Field – Photographer, Co-editor Uncertain States, Author ‘Up close’ a Mother’s view