From the Christian Science Monitor:

Here’s a brilliant idea. Kevin Connolly gets stares wherever he goes. He’s a film student at Montana State University, so he decides to document the stares on film (er, pixels). The result, called The Rolling Exhibition, is a powerful graphic representation of the disability experience, as well as a probing inquiry into the reasons people stare and the stories they construct to explain human difference to themselves.

Why the stares? Connally is 3-foot-1 inches tall, has a muscular upper body and no legs. He rarely uses a wheelchair, preferring to propel himself on a skateboard with his hands. Prosthetic legs are not for him; he says they feel like stilts.

The concept of the exhibit is both elegant and provocative: Connally travelled to 15 countries and took 32,000 photographs of people looking at him, holding his camera at hip-level and shooting as he rolled past. The result is a series of photos of people from all walks of life, all with faces bearing The Look that is so familiar to those of us who share our lives with disability. Call it wonder, bewilderment, suspicion, fear, appreciation or just curiosity. Whatever it is, Connally’s beautiful photographs have captured it.

Along the way, Connally discovered that the stories people construct to explain what they see are closely related to their own experiences. In Eastern Europe, he was perceived as a beggar. In the Ukraine, a holy man. People in his hometown of Helena, Montana, thought he was a wounded Iraq veteran, and in Bosnia he was taken for a victim of a mortar attack. At least one person thought he was playing a trick.

He rejects, by the way, the thought that his disability somehow ennobles him. Here’s his exchange with the Monitor reporter who was trying to wrap his head around that idea:

“Being born like this and raised the way I was, it’s really tough for me to even conceptualize myself as disabled. I just don’t have legs. So when someone says I’m really inspirational, it’s a little strange, because I just don’t think that at all.”

But isn’t the fact that he doesn’t see himself as disabled exactly why he’s so inspirational?

“Yeah, and that’s always the catch,” he shrugs.

Please take a few minutes to view some of Kevin’s photographs. After you navigate to The Rolling Exhibition, click on “One Stare” and then “Gallery.” Each of the thumbnails expands to a full image, and is identified with the location in which it was taken. Priceless.

See also: Man without legs harnesses public gaze, from ABC News.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 5:35 am and is filed under arts/music, NOT2BEMISSED. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.