Reaction to Ted Talk and Portraits on Websites

I was surprised in Riva Lehrer’s Ted Talk when she said that she received so much push back when she tried making self portraits or portraits of other disabled people for her art classes in school. I have always thought of art as an abstract medium where you can present anything in any way you want and be accepted and appreciated. I never thought of art and portraiture as having a specific look to be a proper model. Also, I would’ve expected people to celebrate the disabled community rather than shut it down the way they did to Riva; I expected a more open-minded viewpoint from other artists. Also, people always assume that disabled people are in pain, when in reality they can be fully functional human beings that are in fact even more happy than fully-abled bodies. In Nina Berman’s pictures of the army veterans, I liked how she accentuated their wound such as the burn marks, scars, prosthetic limbs, and bullet wounds. People should celebrate their imperfections because it is a part of who we are and makes us different and unique from one another. One last comment I wanted to bring up was the fact that Lehrer lets her subjects change anything to their portrait once she is finished, which I think is crazy and bold, but also a really interesting idea.  -Rebecca Boden