In Without A Face, Isabella Demavlys portrays the victims of acid attacks in Pakistan. In places like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and now also Afghanistan, acid attacks have become a common form of violence against women.
"Acid attacks are a relatively recent phenomenon, with the earliest recorded incidents in Bangladesh in 1983. They have become possible as acidic products became household items. In Bangladesh, hydrochloric acid is sold as a toilet cleaner and a gallon can be purchased for just a few dollars, and in India and Pakistan a similar chemical concentrate is used for sterilizing kitchens and bathrooms. Since acid is inexpensive and easily accessible, it has increasingly become the weapon of choice." (Conscientious Blog)
It is incredible how easy we have it here! The only time we live in fear is if we hear or see that there is a bad neighborhood and we shouldn't stop through. I mean we obviously fear everyday things together as a world, like sickness, disease, death etc...but we are so lucky that we live, or go to school here, in a safe town. We would never expect something violent to happen here in De Pere. These women have come forward as signs to people who think things like this don't happen. We block out the bad, and most of us (meaning people in college) do not keep up on our daily news...the one place where we hear about the bad things. We can hear about the bad, but then don't you think we somewhat forget as soon as we turn off the TV, or at least it doesn't effect us as much, after we "separate" ourselves from it? I wish and hope that we can be a part of this kind of photography someday. I understand we need to go out and make money, and hopefully we can do what we love to accomplish that, but I think we sometimes "owe" it to use our photography for what is needed to be seen. I think it is just a way to show that we are doing our part as artists to use what we have to spread awareness. Now, I know that some things are more important then others, and some things are closer to people's hearts then other things, and we can't begin to show ALL of them...but we can at least make that small start and begin somewhere. This is something that I have been passionate about for awhile when it comes to photography, and I wish I could do it more.
That is one big reason I commend Jacki in taking on the prison...something she fears, but also something that brings awareness about this place we are only allowed to pass and avert our eyes from when driving down Broadway. To some degree I think it is more about the effort put into getting into the prison and getting the opportunity , then necessarily what we see at a critique. That just goes to show that even if we think it is impossible, we might as well try. The worst that can happen is that we receive a "no." Then we are just back to square one, and we find another route to follow. There is no harm in trying.
I guess my questions would be then...Do you think, if you had the opportunity to shoot something tragic to help spread awareness, you would take it? I guess more so...would it be something that interests you? And, do you think fear pushes us to do things we didn't think were possible?
Check our Isabella Demavlys's website. It has stunning work on it. Especially the continuation to these portraits. It is really compelling.
http://www.izabellademavlys.com/
Lastly, this is a short video that Shane had us watch in New Media Art a couple of weeks ago. It goes along with the problem the Demavlys is trying to bring to people's attention.
http://www.thesmalls.com/members/fedeforc/films/the-wedding.go
0 comments:
Post a Comment