Circle Stories

3 Pages 774 Words

Circle Stories


“Circle Stories: A collaborative Project” by Riva Lehrer, is a collection of paintings and stories of artists who have some form of disability. The author, Riva Lehrer is disabled, as shown in her self-portrait. Riva Lehrer compiled this collaboration to give all society a compassionate insight into the lives of disabled people in the arts. Her collection can be evaluated based on the author’s background, and the collaboration between the disabled artist and the author.

Riva Lehrer has a very personal interest in “Circle Stories: A collaborative Project”. In her self-portrait, one can see that she is wearing corrective shoes to fix an orthopedic problem, and her story indicates she has spina bifida. The fact that she herself is disabled does shine an extra light on her work. Riva Lehrer’s goal with her work is to inform with a tone of understanding. If a collection like this was composed from a “normal person”, I would speculate the underlying tone would be pitiful and patronizing. This idea is evident in the work Diane Arbus, tragically famous (and non-disabled) photographer of, as she calls them, “freaks”. A freak is generally someone who is abnormal and unlike the rest of normal society. As quoted by Sara Ironman at www.temple.edu/photos, “Freaks was a thing I photographed a lot. It was one of the first things I photographed and it had a terrific kind of excitement for me.” This statement by Diane Arbus indicates little empathy for the people she photographs.
Further, the attention to detail in the portraits done by Lehrer illustrates the life of the person painted, unlike the photographs taken by Diane Arbus. Arbus’ photos black and white, as if a dark shadow was cast when the picture was taken. In one Arbus’ photos, there is a teenage unattractive, short couple, standing in a dirty alley behind a dingy gray building. My reaction all of her photos, especially one o...