Re_Cycled_Views: Ka Fifitu Feetu

This was the dilemma facing artist Eric Gottesman in his show Ka Fifitu Feetu .
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His original intentions were to show that not all people with AIDS in Africa are sick and dying.
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He set off to photograph people with the disease living and working in their daily lives.
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However, fearing eviction from their landlords, dismissal from their jobs, and scorn from their families and neighbors, Gottesman's subjects refused to let their faces and identities be revealed.
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So, what we get instead is an interesting collaboration between photographer and subject, where the subject has dictated whether the photographs hide them sufficiently enough.
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In Ka Fifitu Feetu, Gottesman's subjects are veiled in secrecy; and they control much of what we see and know about them, even if they are able to control little else in their own lives.
:: Kristen Palana ::
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Originally published on 07/11/03
How do you set up an online documentary photography exhibit, accessible by anyone with a computer, when your subjects don't want to be photographed, recognized, or known?

This was the dilemma facing artist Eric Gottesman in his show Ka Fifitu Feetu .
His original intentions were to show that not all people with AIDS in Africa are sick and dying. He set off to photograph people with the disease living and working in their daily lives. However, fearing eviction from their landlords, dismissal from their jobs, and scorn from their families and neighbors, Gottesman's subjects refused to let their faces and identities be revealed.

So, what we get instead is an interesting collaboration between photographer and subject, where the subject has dictated whether the photographs hide them sufficiently enough. In Ka Fifitu Feetu, Gottesman's subjects are veiled in secrecy; and they control much of what we see and know about them, even if they are able to control little else in their own lives.
:: Kristen Palana ::

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