Looking Glass: Panel Discussion Introduction

Panel Discussion Introduction

Traci Parks
"Rainbow", color photograph,
(26" x 21"), 1994

"MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHERS FORUM"
Photographers from the 'THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS:
Fresh Perspectives by Photographers with Disabilities' Exhibit
June 18, 2001
at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.

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Panel discussion: introduction and preamble

Deborah Stuart, acting president of VSA arts, describes VSA arts and the exhibit on which the discussion is based.

John Hockenberry, journalist and panel moderator, describes himself and his role as a writer with a disability and his experience of working with a blind photographer on a radio show.

DEBORAH STUART, ACTING PRESIDENT OF VSA arts: We're going to get started, even as more people come in, so that we can begin this very interesting program. I'm Deborah Stuart, and I'm president of VSA arts for two more weeks. I've had a wonderful 15 months; we do have a new president coming in the second of July. I have been associated in one way or other for 20 years, so I'm not going to go very far away, back to New Hampshire and the work that I've done in the field. And it's very exciting to me to be here at the National Press Club to welcome all of you and to be at something as marvelous as this exhibit. We're so pleased today to have the "Meet the Photographers" forum in connection with the "Through the Looking Glass: Fresh Perspectives by Photographers with Disabilities," which you saw, of course, on your way in.

VSA arts, for those of you who are new to us, is the organization which is charged by Congress with providing access to the arts for persons with disabilities. We're really about seeing that art is available for everyone. This organization is funded principally through the Department of Education, and our core mission is children, young people, youth, starting in life with art which is a right for everybody. And the photographers that we see represented in this exhibit represent role models for these children. They represent the achievements that we can celebrate by persons with disabilities, and it's just... it's a marvelous tie-in for us with the total look at the fact that nobody in our culture, nobody in our society, should have a life that doesn't include the best of the arts.

There are 5 people with disabilities represented in this exhibition. The exhibition in total has 22 artists, and they come from across the country. All their works are on sale; the proceeds of these sales go to benefit both the artists and VSA arts so if you see something you can't live without, we encourage you to give in to your wildest impulses. This show was previously hosted by the International Photography Hall of Fame in the museum, and it's been on tour since 1999. But here at the National Press Club is our first D.C. venue. It will, however, have a life beyond the National Press Club, we're happy to say.

We're very fortunate today, and I'm very honored to be able to introduce John Hockenberry as our moderator for this panel. John serves on the Board of VSA arts, and since 1996 has been a correspondent with Dateline NBC as a well-known face and voice. Previous to that, he was a well-known voice on national public radio in several roles, including being a Middle East correspondent and a host of Talk of the Nation. And his reporting has earned him 2 Peabody Awards, and an Emmy Award. He has written a book which is quite astonishing, and I recommend to everybody; it's entitled "Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence." Quite a stunning book, complex and thought-provoking. He has also recently written an environmental thriller novel set in Oregon, which I have not read but that's next on my list, John (laughter). So please join me in welcoming John and our panelists to this forum today.

MR. HOCKENBERRY: Thank you, Deborah. It's great to be here. It's a beautiful day in Washington, following the biblical weekend weather here and most of the East Coast; I'm sure the people who aren't here have as their excuse that they're enjoying the lovely weather here in Washington, D.C. Our mission is as beautiful and righteous as the day outside, and it is a thrill for me to be here today to talk about and to encourage the voices of these artists to illuminate and enlighten and share some of the importance of the experience of art itself, disability or not. In many ways this exhibit is a showcase of the distinction or integrity, depending on how you view it, of the disability experience and the artists' experience.
I think in many waysAmerica needs to think or discover its integrity between the experience of being an artist and being a human. The idea thatin many cultures, notably not this one, it is expected that all people are to have an artistic expression and to participate in their community in some form or art, whether it be singing, whether it be music, whether it be poetry. The community's life blood is perceived to be the art of all of its members. And this is a lesson that we need to learn over and over again in a co-modified America that we live in now here in the beginning of the 21st century. And I think the images in the exhibit out there speak profoundly and wonderfully to the power of art as a window on experience, a window on humanity. And certainly we plan to explore that in the time that we're here this afternoon.

I want to just begin by relating a story. I mean I'm an artist in the sense that you know, I'm a terrible musician... I'm an artist in the sense that I'm a storyteller as a journalist. And I'm an artist in the sense that I'm a writer and novelist, and that is something that I've actually managed to get published.
But in a way those experiences are all the same, that in my life I've attempted to get what is inside out and to see what of that insides consequences to the outside world can get back in me and re-inform me about what's going on in the world. One day as a radio reporter, a talented producer by the name of Joe Richmond, who's also won a couple of Peabody Awards, I think, came to me and suggested - he's actually the son of the Washington Post restaurant critic - who was for a long time, worked over at National Public Radio.
He came to me with an idea that we would do a profile of a blind pianist by the name of Henry Butler. And he had a number of attributes, among them certainly his piano playing, but he was also a photographer... is a photographer. And we talked about well, we'd certainly want to talk about that in this story. It became clear as we focused on the story itself that in fact that was all we wanted to focus on. I mean we wanted to hear his piano playing, but for us as radio producers, there was something kind of intriguing, perhaps almost in a circus sideshow way, about a blind photographer.
And we went at it thinking, well, what could that be about because in fact that was an extraordinary mystery, so was the idea that this person is blind, if he's been blind from birth, what... why would he want to be a photographer, what would he do as a photographer, what sort of images would you produce as a photographer. What we didn't realize is that, and this is something that Henry Butler told us, is that when we came to him and said we wanted to do a profile of his photography, he said "for radio, right?" (laughter) And it was the first moment that any of us, as producers, had thought... now there's another ridiculous idea, right?
But in fact, as we explored both Henry Butler's photography and our experience as producers learning about the images that he created, we discovered windows everywhere we looked. I went with Henry to the Brooklyn Bridge and he was fond of taking pictures that were double exposures. And he would ask me to describe what it was he was aiming at. And he would insist that I tell him where the bridge was, that he would aim at the bridge. Then he would take a picture, and then he would ask about other things. And I'd say there were some birds or some seagulls over there, there's some other stuff, there's some boats over there. And he would, in a sense as a photographer, try to snag using double exposures weird combinations of images.
And he would say, "Do you think I got it?" as he tried to do as his second exposure a seagull flying up from the water, having first framed the bridge in some way in his first image. We decided for the radio piece, for the purpose of the radio piece, to have a slide show that we would record for radio. And again, if you listen to NPR, it's filled with all kinds of gratuitous, sort of sound-ambient moments where, you know, the person is getting into the car to go somewhere and what do you hear, you hear the er... guc... vvrroomm............... And you can ask yourself the question, now did we really need to hear that to know that the person was in fact going from point A to point B in a car. And so our mission in doing the slide show as oh, slide projectors make noise... click, click, hummmm... click, click... hummm.... That would be an interesting sound to have in our radio piece.
What we didn't realize as we started to do the slide show and record the slide show is that we were giving the radio audience the exact experience of Henry Butler's understanding of photography. In a way that no preparation, no sort of classic documentarian technique could ever had predicted in advance.It was the art speaking as a direct connection to a human. And when the picture went up of the Brooklyn Bridge image with the alleged double exposure of the seagull, Henry looked at me and said, did I get it? And I said, oh, Henry, you got it. It's a moment I'll never forget.

Obviously, the images that we celebrate here do not represent that story; they represent a multitude of extraordinary diversity of motives and impulses of photographers, and we want to celebrate those.Let me introduce you to the panelists. To my right, Angelo Sciulli from Lancaster, South Carolina; Traci Parks, as you can read from the label perhaps, Columbus, Ohio; Joan Sarah Wexler, local Washington, D.C. photographer; Tom Lee, to my left, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Suzanne Levine, from San Francisco, California. Let's get a feel for the work of some of these people.

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Panel Discussion Introduction Traci Parks "Rainbow", color photograph, (26" x 21"), 1994 "MEET THE PHOTOGRAPHERS FORUM" Photographers from the 'THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: Fresh Perspectives by Photographers with Disabilities' Exhibit June 18, 2001 at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.
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Panel discussion: introduction and preamble Deborah Stuart, acting president of VSA arts, describes VSA arts and the exhibit on which the discussion is based. John Hockenberry, journalist and panel moderator, describes himself and his role as a writer with a disability and his experience of working with a blind photographer on a radio show. DEBORAH STUART, ACTING PRESIDENT OF VSA arts: We're going to get started, even as more people come in, so that we can begin this very interesting program. I'm Deborah Stuart, and I'm president of VSA arts for two more weeks. I've had a wonderful 15 months; we do have a new president coming in the second of July. I have been associated in one way or other for 20 years, so I'm not going to go very far away, back to New Hampshire and the work that I've done in the field. And it's very exciting to me to be here at the National Press Club to welcome all of you and to be at something as marvelous as this exhibit. We're so pleased today to have the "Meet the Photographers" forum in connection with the "Through the Looking Glass: Fresh Perspectives by Photographers with Disabilities," which you saw, of course, on your way in. VSA arts, for those of you who are new to us, is the organization which is charged by Congress with providing access to the arts for persons with disabilities. We're really about seeing that art is available for everyone. This organization is funded principally through the Department of Education, and our core mission is children, young people, youth, starting in life with art which is a right for everybody. And the photographers that we see represented in this exhibit represent role models for these children. They represent the achievements that we can celebrate by persons with disabilities, and it's just... it's a marvelous tie-in for us with the total look at the fact that nobody in our culture, nobody in our society, should have a life that doesn't include the best of the arts. There are 5 people with disabilities represented in this exhibition. The exhibition in total has 22 artists, and they come from across the country. All their works are on sale; the proceeds of these sales go to benefit both the artists and VSA arts so if you see something you can't live without, we encourage you to give in to your wildest impulses. This show was previously hosted by the International Photography Hall of Fame in the museum, and it's been on tour since 1999. But here at the National Press Club is our first D.C. venue. It will, however, have a life beyond the National Press Club, we're happy to say. We're very fortunate today, and I'm very honored to be able to introduce John Hockenberry as our moderator for this panel. John serves on the Board of VSA arts, and since 1996 has been a correspondent with Dateline NBC as a well-known face and voice. Previous to that, he was a well-known voice on national public radio in several roles, including being a Middle East correspondent and a host of Talk of the Nation. And his reporting has earned him 2 Peabody Awards, and an Emmy Award. He has written a book which is quite astonishing, and I recommend to everybody; it's entitled "Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs, and Declarations of Independence." Quite a stunning book, complex and thought-provoking. He has also recently written an environmental thriller novel set in Oregon, which I have not read but that's next on my list, John (laughter). So please join me in welcoming John and our panelists to this forum today. MR. HOCKENBERRY: Thank you, Deborah. It's great to be here. It's a beautiful day in Washington, following the biblical weekend weather here and most of the East Coast; I'm sure the people who aren't here have as their excuse that they're enjoying the lovely weather here in Washington, D.C. Our mission is as beautiful and righteous as the day outside, and it is a thrill for me to be here today to talk about and to encourage the voices of these artists to illuminate and enlighten and share some of the importance of the experience of art itself, disability or not. In many ways this exhibit is a showcase of the distinction or integrity, depending on how you view it, of the disability experience and the artists' experience. I think in many waysAmerica needs to think or discover its integrity between the experience of being an artist and being a human. The idea thatin many cultures, notably not this one, it is expected that all people are to have an artistic expression and to participate in their community in some form or art, whether it be singing, whether it be music, whether it be poetry. The community's life blood is perceived to be the art of all of its members. And this is a lesson that we need to learn over and over again in a co-modified America that we live in now here in the beginning of the 21st century. And I think the images in the exhibit out there speak profoundly and wonderfully to the power of art as a window on experience, a window on humanity. And certainly we plan to explore that in the time that we're here this afternoon. I want to just begin by relating a story. I mean I'm an artist in the sense that you know, I'm a terrible musician... I'm an artist in the sense that I'm a storyteller as a journalist. And I'm an artist in the sense that I'm a writer and novelist, and that is something that I've actually managed to get published. But in a way those experiences are all the same, that in my life I've attempted to get what is inside out and to see what of that insides consequences to the outside world can get back in me and re-inform me about what's going on in the world. One day as a radio reporter, a talented producer by the name of Joe Richmond, who's also won a couple of Peabody Awards, I think, came to me and suggested - he's actually the son of the Washington Post restaurant critic - who was for a long time, worked over at National Public Radio. He came to me with an idea that we would do a profile of a blind pianist by the name of Henry Butler. And he had a number of attributes, among them certainly his piano playing, but he was also a photographer... is a photographer. And we talked about well, we'd certainly want to talk about that in this story. It became clear as we focused on the story itself that in fact that was all we wanted to focus on. I mean we wanted to hear his piano playing, but for us as radio producers, there was something kind of intriguing, perhaps almost in a circus sideshow way, about a blind photographer. And we went at it thinking, well, what could that be about because in fact that was an extraordinary mystery, so was the idea that this person is blind, if he's been blind from birth, what... why would he want to be a photographer, what would he do as a photographer, what sort of images would you produce as a photographer. What we didn't realize is that, and this is something that Henry Butler told us, is that when we came to him and said we wanted to do a profile of his photography, he said "for radio, right?" (laughter) And it was the first moment that any of us, as producers, had thought... now there's another ridiculous idea, right? But in fact, as we explored both Henry Butler's photography and our experience as producers learning about the images that he created, we discovered windows everywhere we looked. I went with Henry to the Brooklyn Bridge and he was fond of taking pictures that were double exposures. And he would ask me to describe what it was he was aiming at. And he would insist that I tell him where the bridge was, that he would aim at the bridge. Then he would take a picture, and then he would ask about other things. And I'd say there were some birds or some seagulls over there, there's some other stuff, there's some boats over there. And he would, in a sense as a photographer, try to snag using double exposures weird combinations of images. And he would say, "Do you think I got it?" as he tried to do as his second exposure a seagull flying up from the water, having first framed the bridge in some way in his first image. We decided for the radio piece, for the purpose of the radio piece, to have a slide show that we would record for radio. And again, if you listen to NPR, it's filled with all kinds of gratuitous, sort of sound-ambient moments where, you know, the person is getting into the car to go somewhere and what do you hear, you hear the er... guc... vvrroomm............... And you can ask yourself the question, now did we really need to hear that to know that the person was in fact going from point A to point B in a car. And so our mission in doing the slide show as oh, slide projectors make noise... click, click, hummmm... click, click... hummm.... That would be an interesting sound to have in our radio piece. What we didn't realize as we started to do the slide show and record the slide show is that we were giving the radio audience the exact experience of Henry Butler's understanding of photography. In a way that no preparation, no sort of classic documentarian technique could ever had predicted in advance.It was the art speaking as a direct connection to a human. And when the picture went up of the Brooklyn Bridge image with the alleged double exposure of the seagull, Henry looked at me and said, did I get it? And I said, oh, Henry, you got it. It's a moment I'll never forget. Obviously, the images that we celebrate here do not represent that story; they represent a multitude of extraordinary diversity of motives and impulses of photographers, and we want to celebrate those.Let me introduce you to the panelists. To my right, Angelo Sciulli from Lancaster, South Carolina; Traci Parks, as you can read from the label perhaps, Columbus, Ohio; Joan Sarah Wexler, local Washington, D.C. photographer; Tom Lee, to my left, from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Suzanne Levine, from San Francisco, California. Let's get a feel for the work of some of these people.