group show 65
Two Way Lens: Portraits as Empathy

In 2020, empathy may be too rare a personal commodity to share. Viral and political catastrophes and systemic racism’s ongoing, rippling effects exhaust us and can make it challenging to understand and feel for others. Yet, they open a door for what we might need most: warmth, compassion and collaboration.

Two Way Lens translates this into how photographers use these gestures to see, and record others. It interrogates what it means to be in front of and behind the camera - photographic subject/object and photographer - and the power dynamic inherent in that exchange. Is it possible, in spite of photography’s role in reinforcing harmful stereotypes and narratives, to activate and convey empathy through portraiture? If so, how do we do it?

The answer may be in both looking at and seeing what photographs contain. In looking, we commit ourselves cognitively, intellectually, to understanding the subject before us. In seeing, we open ourselves emotionally to the image. We recognize open communication, shared vulnerability, and consent as qualities that disarm the all-consuming photographic gaze. This combination of visual and emotional literacy is a powerful rebuttal to Sontag’s suggestion that we turn away due to ‘image fatigue.’

Thanks for tuning in.

Roula Seikaly.
Co-Curatorial Director, Humble Arts Foundation