Laurie Toby Edison

The work of this photographer is made in an attempt to bring about social change. Edison, initially a sculptor and jewellery maker, took up photography in order to fight for a cause. She wanted to show that larger women can be portrayed as beautiful. The book 'Women En Large: Images of Fat Nudes' took the form of a slideshow in its embryonic stage. The images were shown in various communities to generate discussion around the portrayal of large women in the media.

Similarly, Edison's next project also looked at the issues of body image. 'Familiar Men: A Book of Nudes' this time looks at masculinity. Whilst working on the subject Edison began to realise that masculinity was a complex and largely untouched subject matter. As she states in an online interview with Crescent Blues, the issues that affect and define men and women can be very different:

Crescent Blues: What kinds of issues are emerging as you do the work?

Laurie Edison: One thing I think is an excellent example of this: men are almost exclusively defined by what they do. When you show someone a book of female nudes, no one ever asks, "I wonder what she does?"

Crescent Blues: "Is she a lawyer; is she a doctor; is she a housewife?"

Laurie Edison: No one has ever asked that about any individual photograph in Women En Large. But when you take men's clothes off, people often literally become confused. Men are so defined by what they do; and what you do and how you fit into the whole structure of things is defined by what you wear. The absoluteness of it really floored us.

Full interview Crescentblues.com

This kind of photography is very much rooted in creating social change. It has a basis that strengthens and informs the images. I like the idea of working with communities to make pictures that comes out of, and reflects discussion, but I'm not sure it is a stance I could take myself. I'm not totally comfortable with large groups of people and I certainly wouldn't like to take a directive lead in projects such as Edisons.

I do think about similar issues around identity in my own work though. I just plug at it from a different perspective. I think there is plenty of room for many different approaches - the making of work that is constructed can still take a viewer along a narrative path and hopefully lead them to think about the subject of identity more deeply.