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Impaired Perceptions

I was born with congenital fiber type disproportion. Relax, I don’t expect you to know that term; it’s a condition that causes a person to have weak skeletal muscles. Your race and gender affect the way that others perceive you, and having an impairment definitely changes the way that people see you. The physicality of my body is scientific fact, but how it is contextualized is socially constructed. I created a photographic portrait series titled Impaired Perceptions to change the way we draw conclusions about people with impairments.

Impaired Perceptions is a black and white portrait series of people with various physical impairments. The focus of the series is on seeing others as individuals. I use direct eye contact and tenebrism to draw the viewer’s eye to the subject’s eyes to aid the viewer in seeing the person in the photograph as an individual. Tenebrism is a technique from the baroque period that uses a high contrast beam of light to draw the eye to the point of focus. I use a soft gradient to show the natural beauty of each person’s form.

Some of the people have impairments that are very noticeable in their appearance, but others have impairments that you cannot see simply by looking at them. These two groups are often misperceived in opposite ways. People are often quick to assume that individuals with seeable conditions are incapable of doing most things, and tend to not understand when people with hidden impairments aren’t able to handle something commonly expected of a fully able person. You cannot know what someone is capable of by looking at them. You don’t know a person’s story until they tell it to you.

 

This is a black and white photographic portrait of photographer Brian Charles Steel. Steel has congenital fiber type disproportion, which causes him to be thin and small framed. Steel is positioned on the right side of the frame and he fills it from top to bottom on that side. You see him from just above the knees and up. He is wearing a long sleeved dress shirt with dress slacks. His arms are at his side and he is looking straight into the camera. He is lit in a Rembrandt style with the main light source coming from the left.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Charlie White. Charlie is a thirty-year-old African American with cerebral palsy. His full body is in frame and takes up about one third of the image. He is wearing a long sleeved sweater and blue jeans. He is sitting in a chair towards the center of the frame. His crutches are pointed diagonally towards the bottom left corner. He is lit in a Rembrandt style with the main light source coming from the left. He is looking directly into the camera.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Ben Kitchings. Kitchings is in his thirties, and has cerebral palsy. He is wearing glasses, a Thrashers jersey, and jeans. His whole body is in frame, and he is positioned toward the bottom of the frame. He holds his crutches up in the air making a v.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Eric Carlisle sitting in his scooter. He is wearing glasses, and looking directly into the camera. He is wearing a sweater and jeans. Carlisle is lit in a Rembrandt style with the main light source coming from the right. He is shown from the knees up, and comprises most of the image.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photograph of Kyle Benedict. He is paraplegic, and sitting in his wheelchair towards the bottom center of the frame. His chair is facing the left, but he is turned toward the camera looking straight into it. His hands are folded neatly in his lap. Benedict has short hair and an athletic build. The main light source is coming from the left.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Candice Holloway. Candice is positioned in the right half of the frame. Her hands are folded neatly in front of her, and body is facing to the left while she is looking straight into the camera. The light is coming from the left.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Richard Corbett. He is positioned in the center of the frame. He is flexing his arms up in the air in a bodybuilding pose. He is seated in a wheel chair while wearing blue jeans and no shirt. He is lit in a Rembrandt style with the main light coming from the left. The light is soft.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Sandy Brauer sitting in a chair. She is in the lower middle portion of the frame. She is shown from just below the knees and up. She is wearing a short sleeve shirt with horizontal stripes and plain white shorts that go to the knees. She has her legs crossed facing toward the left. Her upper body is facing forward and she is looking into the camera. Her hands are on her legs. She has short brown hair and is wearing glasses. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Jessica Blinkhorn. She is sitting in her black electric wheelchair. Her body is facing the right side of the frame at a slight upward angle. Her head is turned toward the front, and she looks into the camera with a relaxed smile. She is wearing a dress, and her arms are covered with tattoos. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of photographer Brian Charles Steel. He is positioned in the right side of the frame, and his back is turned to the camera. He is wearing no shirt and you can see the effect of scoliosis on his back. The light creates shadows across his back that reveals the uniqueness of his form. He is wearing dark pants and his shown from just above the knees and up. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Allison Kerr. She is positioned toward the center, and lit with a Rembrandt style. The main light source is coming from the right. She is shown from the waist up, and she looks directly into the camera. Kerr has shoulder length blond straight blond hair. She is holding her hands together over her stomach. Kerr is wearing a short-sleeved button up shirt. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Curtis Lovejoy. Lovejoy is wearing a dark short-sleeved shirt and white shorts. He is seated in his wheelchair and is facing forward. He is looking straight into the camera and is shown from the knees and up. His hands are in his lap. Lovejoy is lit from the left in a Rembrandt style. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Carolyn Caskey. She is shown from the waist up, and she is holding her hands together over her stomach. Her body is facing toward the left side of the frame and her head is turned forward looking into the camera. She is lit with a Rembrandt style and the light source is coming from the right side. Her hair is curly, and almost shoulder length. She is wearing glasses. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Barry Lee. He is standing in the middle of the image and his whole body is in frame. He is wearing dark jeans and a short sleeve plaid shirt that is unbuttoned, and open. His hands are in his pockets. He has curly hair and is wearing glasses. Lee is standing with one leg straight and the other bent. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Empish Thomas. She is seated in a chair in the bottom left portion of the frame. Thomas is wearing a dark sweater and a plaid skirt. Her hands are folded neatly in her lap, and she is wearing sunglasses. Her whole body is in the frame, and she occupies about a fourth of the image. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Hobo Bodkin. He is seated in a chair and comprises the middle of the bottom half of the frame. His hands are folded neatly in his lap. He is wearing a red sweater and black corduroys. Bodkin is lit with a Rembrandt style, and the light is coming from the right side. His body is facing forward, and he is looking straight into the camera. He is bald with a grey mustache. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Paul Singh. He is standing on right side of the frame facing to the left with his head turned to the front. He is wearing glasses and a vertically striped shirt with short sleeves. Singh is using crutches to stand. He occupies most of the frame, and we see him from the waist up. He is lit with Rembrandt style lighting where the main source is coming from the left. The background is solid black.
This is a Brian Charles Steel black and white photographic portrait of Tiffany Coleman. She occupies the bottom half of the frame, and is shown from the chest up. She has short dark hair, and is wearing a grey shirt. Coleman is facing forward, and looking straight into the camera. She occupies about one third of the frame. Coleman is lit with Rembrandt lighting with the main source coming from the left. The background is solid black.