Disparaging looks, grimaces - Haley Morris-Cafiero's photos show relentlessly how the public reacts to an overweight woman.
Photo: Haley Morris-Cafiero
Photo project 'Wait Watchers' goes around the world
Some years ago, photographer Haley Morris-Cafiero shot a self-portrait on a staircase in Times Square, New York. It should be a completely normal picture. At that time, the Texan could not have guessed that this recording would be the beginning of a large-scale photo project.
When Haley develops the photo later, she has to realize that not only she can be seen in the midst of an uninvolved mass of people. While the photographer posed for her own picture, an unknown man had stood behind her, sneering at her. Haley's picture shows a woman who is capturing that very moment with her own camera. Of course, without realizing that she herself is being photographed.
Haley Morris-Cafiero, who herself suffered from an eating disorder for years, is accustomed to being seen or mocked at being overweight. She would never have thought that she would hold such a brief moment with her camera. When she realized this, she often set up her camera and tried to capture several of those moments.
A lot has happened since that day seven years ago. Haley Morris-Cafiero developed a whole project on the basis of this one photo, which she named 'Wait Watchers'. Her idea behind it: "Although I do not know what people actually think in the photos, I select images that show people whose eyes are questioning or critical, and nowadays people are communicating with looks, and people see each other like others they view and construct their self-image against this background. "
Haley wants to change that with her pictures: "I want to encourage people to love themselves, regardless of what other people think, whether it's good or bad." It shows the people who are staring at them and condemning them with their eyes, their own reflection and exposing them to the public eye. Her pictures are thought-provoking and stimulate discussion about accepted beauty ideals.
A post shared by Haley Morris-Cafiero (@hmorriscafiero) on Jan 10, 2016 at 12:37 pm
