Verbal abuse: If we could but see it

(Photos by Kuebi at galerie.hbz-da.de)

“Sticks and stones will hurt my bones, but names will never harm me…”   We’ve all heard these words before, but are they actually true?

If we could but see the ravages of verbal abuse, we would know that this sing-song mantra is false.  With his vivid portrayal of verbally-induced bruises, photographer Richard Johnson has made this graphically clear.

Tyler McCarthy of The Huffington Post reports on Johnson’s “new photo project” called “Weapon of Choice.”  He employed a makeup artist “to put bruises and scars on photo subjects,” as well as to trace nasty epithets such as “Stupid” and “Ugly” within these blemishes.  This striking imagery visually conveys the wounds of verbal abuse.

Johnson stated that the “overall goal” of this project is “to shine a light on the fact that, when we’re focusing on bullying as a society, we focus on actual physical abuse.”

Resources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/20/weapon-of-choice-physical_n_5359828.html

Copyright May 24, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved