“God Has Given You One Face…”
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 22 February 2012 13:48
- Written by Super User
ASP and photographer Liz Linder feature the “faceless” in new exhibit
By Matt Robinson
As one the area’s preeminent Shakespearean troupe, Actors Shakespeare Project (www.actorsshakespeareproject.
But what about those who may not be heard even while they are here?
Through March 16, ASP, in collaboration with Artists for Humanity and acclaimed photographer Liz Linder (www.lizlinder.com), are presenting a series of provocative portraits at the Moakley Courthouse in South Boston. Called “Portraits Without Faces,” the series of shots features participants in ASP’s Incarcerated Youth at Play program. In addition to students from ASP residencies at Boston Arts Academy and Charlestown High School, the exhibit features teachers and other adults, including residents of area elderly facilities and DYS treatment facilities. As court rules prohibit the release of the young peoples’ names or their images, Linder used her talents to create a series of images in which the names and faces are blurred, but the message still comes through loud and clear. Each life-sized image is marked by a single word – the same word the subjects were asked to respond to the moment their image was confidentially captured by Linder.
“The words…are selected from the language of Shakespeare,” Linder says, explaining another tie-in with ASP’s mission. “The participants were invited to select one word and one prop that spoke to them, without showing their faces. They were encouraged to interact with the words and the props to portray their own dramas.”
“We wanted to explore the resonance of a word from a play,” adds ASP’s Project Manager Lori Taylor, “and how [people] embody it. How each of us stands and unfolds ourselves.”
With ASP’s coaching and Linder’s direction, each image is a powerful commentary that speak without saying a word and that expresses without any facial expression.
“This idea was born following a personal portrait session,” Linder explains, crediting Taylor with coming up with the idea as a means of gaining greater visibility for the company and their Incarcerated Youth program. “The challenge,” Linder suggests, “was to show the essence of the communities involved without showing the actual identities of the participants.” Another challenge, Linder notes, was setting up sessions with the proposed subjects. “It took months to get a handful of shoot dates in the calendar,” she recalls. “Once we started shooting, however, the momentum carried us through.”
As she has worked with Boston’s best artists, including Eric Schwartz, Esperanza Spalding, and such international celebrities as Anna Kournikova and Davy Jones and as she has had her images appear in such vaunted venues as ABC and MTV, creating compelling images, even in such challenging circumstances, was nothing new to Linder. In fact, she relished the opportunity! “I love collaborating with creative colleagues,” she says. “It's always such a treat to work with companies like ASP who are innovators in their own right.”
