At first glance this series of four images by Richard Heipp appear to be photographs. They look like medical documentation of a man being electrocuted. Is this some kind of cruel treatment of mental illness? The man appears to be in great agony. How can an artist simply frame some old photographs and call it his art- there must be a reason. Wait........... this is a drawing!? Staring closely at these images for several minutes, one searches for evidence of the artist's hand, which must be there. There are faint pencil outlines- reassuring. The title says these are a documentation of research about human facial expressions. Wikipedia tells me that the research was published in 1862 and was maybe the first photographic documentation of the human emotions. The photograph was considered a true reflection of reality. It was interesting to know too, that Duchenne chose to experiment extensively on this particular subject because he had an anesthetic condition of the face which caused him not to feel the pain. These images trigger a number of associations, including that of methods of scientific progressthe, abuse of individuals for the sake of knowledge and aesthetics, and the way we really need to be careful of what we assume based off a first impression of an image. The question of associations with photographs vs handmade images is also major here. The fact that these are drawings generally makes the viewer slow down and look at them longer, allowing for the possibility of deeper thinking and questioning.
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