Sick In Bed

Sick in Bed is a collection of vernacular photographs that question the photographic gaze. Unequal power dynamics are inherent in much of portraiture, but when the photographer's subject is a woman or girl confined to bed, the disparity is heightened.

Sick in Bed is a collection of vernacular photographs that I began buying in 2015 from flea markets and antique shops, as well as online, that together question the photographic gaze. Unequal power dynamics are inherent in much of portraiture, but when the photographer's subject is a woman or girl confined to bed, the disparity is heightened.

When my daughter Mimi turned 20, she developed a disability I started taking pictures of her, but it was painful because I felt like I was becoming complicit in the voyeurism towards people with disabilities. The academic Katherine Byrne describes how invalidism became a way of life for women with tuberculosis in the 19th century because it was a means of demonstrating the most desirable of female characteristics, namely purity, passivity and a willingness to sacrifice oneself for others, especially men. Through this collection of anonymous portraits, I reconnect with the experience I had with my daughter, and confront the present-day legacy of these historic attitudes towards female patients.