I’m pleased to announce I have a new essay appearing in the latest issue of The Drawbridge, an equally challenging and irreverent “magazine” (presented in a broadsheet newspaper format but with much better stock), whose marvelous cover appears above.
“Horror” is the theme of this issue – previous issues have had themes like “Home” and “Ego” – and my essay is about looking at photographs of bodies; bodies that are misshapen or distorted by injury or disease. I was first prompted to respond to the embarrassing furore over Bill Henson’s photographs of a young girl in Sydney last year, but found I had no valid or differentiating point of entry to that “debate”. Instead I recalled a much more directly personal series of photographs I took of my late husband John, with his permission, and related that experience to how our viewing of other types of disabled bodies is mediated in various ways.
I will post a link as soon as one becomes available, or create a PDF of the piece and publish it on my website when my copy arrives by snail mail.
