Wheelchair Stories

Susan identifies as a disabled lesbian living and working in Glasgow, Scotland. She is currently writing a PhD Thesis on the relationship many people with disabilities have with their equipment, and how it can often be used in ways beyond what it was designed for. She says that her wheelchair, for example, is frequently employed in many ways other than purely assisting her to move from one place to another – it can often end up as anything from a shopping cart to a towel rack to an extra space to place her laptop when she works from her bed. Collaborating with her on the ideas and concepts, I took a series of photos of Susan's wheelchair in and around her house where she is absent from the images but her presence is implied by the extra items on it (washing basket, knitting etc.). Challenging the ableist gaze, which can seek to render Susan either as invisible or as distinctly “other”, this photo series intends to provoke different layers of thoughts in the viewer, by removing her from the picture while still showing very human activity.