I'm Not Crazy, I Just Lost My Glasses
De Novo Press, 1986
Jonathan Kirsch, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, February 22, 1987: “Shavelson, a photographer with a compassionate spirit and an acute sense of social observation, has attempted to go beyond the clinical euphemisms, to penetrate the abstract phenomenon of mental illness, and to look unflinchingly in the human face of madness. Shavelson’s method is simple, straightforward, and powerful in its impact. ... he photographed each subject in stark, sometimes harrowing, always evocative black-and-white portraiture. ...Shavelson allows each man and woman to tell us something intimate and unguarded about the reality of mental illness. In the most literal sense, then, these mentally disturbed men and women speak for themselves. ...The book is a compelling one; Shavelson has aspired to create a work of art and social science, and he succeeds at both enterprises.”
A.D. Coleman, Photography Critic and Historian, Tisch School of the Arts,
New York University: “This
book...makes accessible and humanizes the experience of madness,...rendered not
in the abstract jargon of the would-be healers but in the commonplace language
of the wounded,...people with faces and voices of their own, with stories to
tell. ...I’m Not Crazy brings alive and personalizes people who are all
too often discussed as diagnoses, symptoms, types, statistics. ...I see it
making a real contribution to the public debate on issues of mental health.”
From exhibit reviews of I'm Not Crazy, I Just Lost My Glasses
Artweek: “Shavelson’s show is a true collaboration between artist and subject. ... As social commentary and documentation, this has to be one of the most powerful to appear recently.”
The San Francisco Examiner: “Haunting images of mental illness. The visual context of each image is a wealth of psychological nuance...”
Photo Metro: “Sensitively reveals the world of the mentally ill. ...The viewer will be deeply moved by this exhibition because it touches at our innermost core.”
I'm
Not Crazy, I Just Lost My Glasses (at Amazon.com)
Links to additional reviews: San
Jose Mercury News; Orange
County Register
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