In class, we discussed John Currin's painting The Cripple. This painting prompted a brief class discussion about sexuality and disabilities. I happened to find a write up about Robert Coombs, a photographer who suffered a devastating accident that left him paralyzed, and his dedication to making disabilities sexy (http://www.artprize.org/robert-coombs/2012/disabilities-and-sexuality). This photographer chose to showcase himself and other people with disabilities in the nude. These nudes are deliberately making a statement of "look at me", "look at my body", "sexually fantasize about my nude body". On the video, Coombs discusses his desire to be looked at in a sexual manner.
It was a nice post. What made it strong was his own disability which makes the artwork very personal. Although the different between what he pictured and Cripple is the lighting and color. In Cripple what we see is all happy and that creates the question of "why happy" as we always expect dark and sad from disability. The way I interpret Robert Coombs' photo series is not happy or sexy but very strong, self confident but with pain and sadness.
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