Artist Statement:
“HELP, PLEASE!” The man utters his last words before he drops dead on the floor as you rush to the scene, but you find yourself helpless as you stare at the body. You stand a safe distance away from interacting with the body as you marvel at the scene of the man’s lifeless corpse. You hear more screams of “HELP, PLEASE!” and instantly bolt towards each scene to see the same event of a man dropping dead again but in different places. You stand there unable to do anything, rather, you don’t want to do anything.
“HELP, PLEASE!” is a series that directly addresses the relationship between the viewer and the subject in the photo. In this series, I juxtapose public scenes with private moments. By exposing the privacy and vulnerability of the bodies in antitheatrical compositions, I highlighted the ways in which society often observes without acting, this is known as the Bystander Effect. Thus, the photographs compel the audience to inquire about the subject matter and their relationship with the photograph and its subject. It is only through the viewer's investigation of this image that its meaning is revealed. The meaning is not in the image but in the relationship between the image and viewer.
How often do you find yourself hearing someone calling for help, but you don’t because somebody else will? The majority of society does this. Most people don’t care about who the person struggling is until they know who they are or who they represent. How is your act of viewing the anonymous dead bodies in “HELP, PLEASE!” adding to the Bystander Effect?
So, when someone screams “HELP, PLEASE!”, would you be someone who stares at the event, marveling at the scene and unable to do anything?
December 2021
