Pamela Parlapiano is an adept photographer, who can show the dignity and good humour of individuals who face significant challenges in their lives.  She is especially keen to use her experience and talent to bring about social change. Her infectious enthusiasm shone through in this recent interview.

Credit © Pamela Parlapiano
See her website for more photos:
www.pamelaparlapiano.com 

What lead you to become a photographer?

I realised early on that I loved watching people. I watched them all the time and it seemed I knew what they were thinking just by their gestures. I grew up in the South Bronx where life was led outside. You ate and played outside; mothers sat on folding chairs outside. Steven, who had seizures, had them outside. Everything was a natural part of life. I never had a camera as a child, but I took it all in with my eyes and would blink when I saw something that touched me. When I came to take my first photography class as an adult I knew from my childhood that many people living with poverty or challenges could, and still do, emerge with happiness and dignity. I knew then that I would use my visual talent and love of people to show this amazing side of human nature.

How do you seek permission to take photographs?

I ask if I can photograph someone. If we have no language in common I will point to the camera and nod as if to ask: “Is this okay?” I never sneak a photograph. It would have no meaning. Whenever it is known that I am taking photographs at a public event, I do not ask permission to take each photograph, but if I notice someone not wanting it I respect their wish. The more the desire exists on both sides the more intimate and free the photograph will be.

Do you try to be invisible behind the camera?  How do you approach invasion of space? 

I will answer these two questions with a story.  When I was in the Philippines, I was taken to a hospital for people affected by Hansen’s Disease to meet the young people there.  A film crew had just walked into the hospital without introducing themselves to anyone and had started filming. One woman, who they were filming, put her head down in sadness as they filmed her, focussing on her hands.  When they had left I introduced myself to everyone and asked every one their name. I noticed one of these women had books in English on her bed. She told me she was an English teacher and she got out of her bed to be my interpreter around the hospital. I would ask her later that day to help some of the young people in hospital with their English and I bought her a dictionary. She was so proud to have someone recognise and care about her knowledge. Naturally, the photograph I took of her looks very different from that taken by the film crew. If you want a photograph that reveals who a person is then you have got to take the time and get to know them.

So what kind of relationship do you try to establish between you and your subject?

I say one of exchange. I tell people as much about me as I ask about them!

Watching reveals much too! It is usually not long before people reveal a trait that is ever present in their personality. That is what I want to capture in my portrait. In 1993 I was in India. Before taking a photo of a young man we spent time together during which I observed his love of animals and that he was very gentle and so kind. Eventually the moment came when all of his gentleness came together in a photograph.

On another occasion, I met a man in Lo Sheng in Taiwan, Province of China, who was so into karaoke that he would go and sing every night and I went with him, because I also love to sing. I photographed the singer he is. People are most revealing when they are doing what they love and are most comfortable when you are a part of it.

What is your interest as a photographer?

I am so glad that I seem to have this talent as a photographer, because my real interest is in people. I like being able to enter into their lives in such an intimate way. I love staying in villages or in different countries or settlements and meeting people. I always say to photography students: “Put down your camera. Think about what it is you love doing. Then pick up your camera and photograph what you love best and you will take your best photos.” I love people!

What do you aspire to portray?

For me a good photograph reveals something about that person or person. Are they funny? Are they proud? Are they intense? So I consider great portraits to be the ones where that trait just simply sits front and centre in the photograph.  

Do you aspire to capture the full story or to leave something unsaid?

I have always believed that the closer you are to the truth about someone in a photograph or in a painting, the more you see how layered people are. By virtue of the intimacy of a photograph you automatically see that there is always more.

In the instance of not wanting to define someone by an illness, I neither shy away from, nor direct my camera on, any part of the body that shows someone’s illness.  I just frame it to take the portrait that is the most revealing of someone’s personality. Everything else, whether it is included or not, falls by the wayside. 

How do you conceive the relationship between the photograph and the viewer?

Two things make a photograph a success for me. First and foremost, is that the person I took the picture of is proud of the photograph and recognises them self! And then that the viewer sees the person I photographed in the same way I saw them when I took the photograph. I once showed a photograph of someone from the patients’ association IDEA, who is a funny person, to a curator of the International Center of Photography. His response was to say he had never thought he would look at a photograph of someone who had Hansen’s disease and be envious of his humour!

Images are powerful so it is important photographers ask themselves what impact their photographs will have on the persons they have photographed and on the people who will see them.   

The majority of your photos are in black and white. Why?

I think that black and white strips away everything that may side track (like bright

colours) and goes to the essence of feelings. Also because it is not the colour of reality, it allows you to go to another place and feel.

What, if anything, is different when you are photographing in a fragile country or one in conflict?

It depends where you are and what you are doing. When I was in the Philippines there was uproar because they had just arrested Estrada. Someone saw that I had a camera around my neck and was going to set a car on fire for the attention. I simply took the camera off my neck and put it away. He did not light that fire. 

On the other hand my PEACE AS A VERB PROJECT that I initiated in Aligarh and Gujarat in India, both places of religious tension, went beautifully. I went into the streets and asked people: “Are you Muslim?” If they replied yes, I went on to ask if they had a Hindu friend. If they did, I then told them that I would like to honour that in a photograph. People who had friends of other faiths loved it. Those who did not told me that if I were to come back in a few months’ time they would have a Hindu friend!

There is a lot of PEACE AS A VERB in IDEA, the patients’ association for people affected by leprosy.

What do you think of the statement by Gandhi: “I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers”?

A picture can be worth a thousand words they say, but like words it is what words you use to describe someone or where you focus your camera that can create either a positive or negative impact. Gandhi was a lawyer. There are lawyers who use their knowledge to do good and others who use it in an immoral way. The same is true in photography. I have seen people with good intentions abuse the right to photograph and point their cameras at people with disabilities, infringing on their privacy. On the other hand, I have seen a good photograph change perceptions, give insight and make the person photographed enormously proud. 

Which photographers do you admire the most/have been the most inspirational to you?

I look less to photographers for inspiration, as I want to maintain my individual way of seeing. But I love great film. I love great writing and I love contemporary art. But most of all, I am inspired by the people I meet. 

What if any unfulfilled aspirations do you have as a photographer?

I want to be able to do my PEACE AS A VERB project in at least four countries to prove that there are people all over the world, who in-spite of geography, borders or religion, manage to live in peace. We all desperately need to see these images and I do believe that because of my nature I could do this project well. I am looking for a grant if anyone has any thoughts!

Why do you take photographs for IDEA?

I feel so honoured that IDEA, the patients’ association, has chosen me to be their photographer. IDEA members know that my only interest in people, personally or photographically, is not what illness they have but who they are inside, their interests, what makes them laugh, their strengths and so on. I love meeting new people from all over the world and getting to know them. It makes me very excited to introduce the people of IDEA in a photograph. Many people, who have been affected by Hansen’s disease, have been described photographically solely by their illness. Sadly some NGO people went the route of pity to raise money to help people affected by Hansen’s disease. I am a founding member of IDEA.  It’s commitment that people who have been affected by Hansen’s disease should move their own human rights agenda, is in keeping with my belief that a photograph of a person should be about them and how they see themselves!  No movement or photograph can be stronger than when the subject is front and centre and given all the power.

E-mail: parlaphoto@aol.com
Website: www.pamelaparlapiano.com   
Website of IDEA (International Association for Integration Dignity and Economic Advancement): http://www.idealeprosydignity.org/ 

Categories: News and Notes, USA