Ad hominem is often the type of fallacy rolled out when Trump has come under-fire for his misogynistic quotes in the past. The problem is, Trump's words about women and his political acumen are not easily separated out. This wide-spread difficulty has lead to backlash manifesting itself in a number of ways. One of the recent and most powerful ways has been Student Aria Watson's photo series.18-year-old student of Clatsop Community College in Oregon created her photo series titled "#SignedByTrump" as a project for her photography class, but it has unexpectedly garnered a worldwide audience and consequent debate.
Used with the permission of Aria Watson.
Political satirist Jonathan Pie commented on Trump's campaign by noting that the frequency and magnitude of the scandals that kept making it to press desensitized people to just how awful some of them were. Where as any one of the many misogynistic quotes would have landed other candidates firmly in the soup, Trump had developed a sort of armour from scandals made up of the corpses of other scandals. This resulted in outrage but so much fell on deaf ears. Aria's series has done wonders to apply the gravitas these quotes ought to have through making his words visual, visceral and each quote distinct from one another. If the sheer volume of misogyny was the numbing agent, then Aria's series is doing a fantastic job of bringing sensation back en masse.
Used with the permission of Aria Watson.
Aria started the series a few weeks prior to the election taking place but Trump's victory ignited her enthusiasm to finish the project. Aria explained to me how she is worried that the quotes in this series do not yield the appropriate consequences stating that "I'm afraid that words, and even actions like this will become a social norm." As important as the series is to Aria, it didn't come without its ordinary photographic difficulties, chiefly finding models.
I could not have done this project without the help of my models. I had such a difficult time finding people who were willing to model for me. Not only is it hard for people to strip down in front of someone and let them paint on their body, but it’s hard for a lot of people to be open about their political opinions.
One element to the images that struck me as a photographer was the choice not to include the faces of the models. With faceless portraits, there's always a chance that you will lose a connection with your audience as it is in the face where a lot of the subject's "story" lies, but it's effective here and before I mentioned to Aria why I thought that, she articulated that thought as one of her two reasons.
I decided to keep everyone's face out of the photos and keep them anonymous for two main reasons. For one, anonymity in art can be powerful, people can picture whoever they want on those bodies. The second reason is that these girls are not just models to me. They are friends, family, and one is even a self portrait.
Aria admitted that she has even come under fire for not including enough of an ethnic diversity in her series but given the sensitive nature of the project's subject, the partial nudity and the fact she lives in a small town, it was not entirely possible to branch out as much as she may have liked. Despite some criticism, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive towards Aria, even sometimes "moving her to tears".
Used with the permission of Aria Watson.
In closing, Aria wanted to thank her photography professor, David Homer, for all of his support on this series and she also has a message to all of the people who have rallied behind her project:
To everyone who has supported me and “#SignedByTrump.” don’t let anyone silence you. Don’t be afraid to speak up about what you are passionate about. I don’t know why Donald Trump is in office, or how this even happened, but he is. What we need now more than ever is to come together. We are stronger together.
If you would like to see Aria discussing her project, here's a Youtube vlog she recorded yesterday:
While there has been a lot of support for Aria, such a contentious and politically motivated project is going to usher in a lot of unpleasantness. While healthy debate is welcomed, I'd like to remind you to keep your comments reasoned and relevant. Whether you support Trump or not, this project was conducted by an 18-year-old photographer in her Introduction to Photography college class with the intention of expressing her feelings towards Trump's comments and she did not expect the series to go viral, so feedback ought to have an appreciation of those facts.
Eminence Front
The worst part is not one of these chicks is better than a 5. Trump would grab none fvthem by the pussy. The man has standards.
Self righteous moral indignation. I'm sure this artist is a Saint. Remember - Hillary and the Dems spent tons of money and resources, hired dozens of investigators going through Trumps past with a fine toothed comb. I've said worse things that I'm not proud of but I guess I'm not as Saintly as Jonathan. Good thing the internet wasn't around when JFK was in office.
In my opinion art like this serves only to divide people. Like we aren't already divided enough.
I was impressed with Fstoppers until this article.
I may be mistaken, but I thought this website was focused on the pursuit of high quality, inspirational photography and not the glorification of political trash via the use of extremely low quality imagery and even lower quality comments.
If Fstoppers has pride in, and any respect for this site and its readers, they should avoid this type of trash and spend their efforts trying to attract a higher class of contributors!
There is a time and place for political commentary and this is clearly not it!
There are enough trash outlets..... this is beyond disappointing!
agreed. it seems this site has become something that just pushes quantity over quality. there are lots of shooters out there doing quality work that should be featured.
I'm sure there's an Alt-Photography website out there to pursue your interests. Google is your friend and foe.
YEA for the freedom of the press. BOO for this post!. Its is forbidden to forbidden, I say. Come on FS, you are better than this "thing". Go to beach in SC and eat some crabs. You are causing us to get crabby PS, Lets keep these bloody UK bloats in check or we might build a wall and deport them to Ireland or Scotland.
hahaha cool