Erwin Olaf Mind Their Own

Portraits of people with intellectual disabilities place the individuals, rather than their need for care, at the centre of attention. The selection comprises eighteen portraits, with subjects ranging in age from six months to twenty-six years. Conceived as a portrayal of ordinary people in an unusual social position, the project turns its attention to the society around them and the way it sees disability. Instead of presenting the sitters as problems for a welfare state to address, it casts them as heroes. The result is a portrait-based monograph concerned with how people are represented and with the assumptions attached to those representations.