RELATIONSHIPS - AUTISM

Originally published March 9, 2009

For the second part of my relationships assignment, I set up a visit to the Eden and Razzett Foundation , aiming to document the close relationship between the therapists and the clients. I did it over two sessions, the initial one having been cut short by some breaking news coverage. The Foundation’s CEO Nathan Farrugia put me in touch with the head of the STEP unit, Doreen Mercieca, who cleared the way through the minefield that is data protection in this country. On both visits, I had to be careful who I had in the picture, as some children could not be photographed – keeping track of who could and who couldn’t took some getting used to.

The Foundation’s website describes STEP (Structured Training and Education Programme) as a specialised programme for children and adolescents within the autistic spectrum. The STEP programme is offered through a team made up of tutors who are supported by the speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists and the programme’s psychologist. Parents are considered to be key members of the team and work alongside tutors and the other professionals. Their commitment and cooperation is considered to play a major part in the child’s progress. Parents are an integral part of their child’s assessment and teaching, constantly providing information about their child’s needs, behaviour, interests and dislikes, and also voicing their own concerns and priorities for their child.

The unit provides intensive specialised training, education and support allowing the development of the child’s full potential and level of independence appropriate for his or her age, as well as provides assistance and support to ensure full inclusion at school and within the community.

I found autism particularly interesting within the scope of the relationships brief as autistic children are normally considered to be incapable of forming normal social relationships.

However, whilst doing some internet research before the shoot, I came across a fascinating piece called Six Principle of Autistic Interaction, written by James Williams (http://www.jamesmw.com/), a high-functioning autistic person, proved very revealing.

Williams writes

“ Autistic individuals typically have problems interacting in normal social environments. This leads some parents and professionals to think that they are naturally antisocial. However, autistic individuals, if allowed to interact with other autistic individuals, develop complex friendships that are based on social rules that are unique to autistic relationships. These social rules are not necessarily the social rules of neurotypical individuals.”

I resolved to see if I could capture that.

As on earlier assignments, I was still restricted to one camera, one lens and manual everything. However, we were now allowed to uprate the ISO to 1600 and shoot colour if we preferred. I stuck to black and white, feeling it would work better for this kind of thing. I used a 16- 35mm f/2.8 lens on my 5DMkII, taking care not to operate the zoom at all but just leaving it on the 35mm end. Being all indoor work, being able to use an ISO of 1600 was a welcome addition. I was looking for moments of interaction among the children and tutors, as well as amongst the children themselves. I wanted eye contact, eye lines, expressive body language, physical touch. There were also the moments of interaction between the children and the world around them that needed to be captured.

At first, some of the children took a keen interest in me and the camera, but they soon got bored of me and started ignoring my presence, which is exactly what I wanted. Towards the end of the second session, when all the children were playing in the same space and all but two couldn’t be photographed, I had to use slow shutter speeds and pan with my main subject so as to blur everyone else. It’s a bit of a hit and miss technique, but I think it worked in a few instances. I wanted to show them playing together, and at times not playing together, and this seemed the only way to go about it given the restrictions of who could be shown in a photograph. I did find myself deleting several images, something I don’t normally do unless the image is technically a total washout, because the wrong person could be seen in the background, or the person remained recognisable despite the blurring technique. Some good images are lost because of that, but one has to accept that without too much bother. The fact that some parents did give consent to having their children documented was a blessing for which I’m very grateful, so why push my luck?

MAPJD Relationships 2 - Eden Foundation EDIT - Images by Darrin Zammit Lupi




MAPJD Relationships 2B - Eden Foundation EDIT - Images by Darrin Zammit Lupi