What Lies Within

What do you think when you see this photo? What emotions does it evoke? What assumptions or conclusions do you draw about the subject?

Does this photo alarm you, create a sense of fear or apprehension? Do you imagine the man in the photo could be a threat to you?

Or do you think that perhaps the subject is someone who is hiding the effects of an injury or disease, or simply is apprehensive and fearful himself? Or just plain shy?

You know, 30 years ago the average person would have imagined this was a meant to be a ghost. Or perhaps a Christian would have thought it a photo of a biblical leper.

Nowadays, the first reaction most people have is "Radical Muslim/Terrorist". (Except for one gamer acquaintance who said  "Dude, it's the guy from Assassin's Creed").

All this tells me this photograph "works". It works because it causes people to think, to go beyond simply looking at it and deciding whether it's a pretty picture or not. However, the photo alone reveals what lies within the viewer far more than what lies within my own heart.

So who is the guy in the shroud, glaring out at you?

It's a self portrait. That's me beneath the sheet.


I took this photo in response to someone suggesting that because my birth mother was Lebanese Arab, I might have a bit of the terrorist in me (never mind that she was Maronite Catholic, not an extremist Muslim). Those who know me would (and did) laugh at that notion.

The idea is I took someone else's prejudice and turned it around in a way that I hope would make her rethink things. That's what any art should be about: leading the viewer or listener to do some rethinking about things. Whether it's the world in general, a specific subject....or the audiences own way of thinking...art should be about growing and experiencing things together that we would not otherwise experience without it.

So I hope this photo leads you to an experience that you would not have had if you'd never seen it. Ideally, that experience will be about gaining a better understanding of what lies within your own heart.  If it does, I've lived up to my name for a moment.

Nia:wenkoha,
Rain