We recently connected with Patricia Fortlage and have shared our conversation below.
Patricia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
I have worked on some incredibly meaningful projects… life after sexual assault, women breaking stereotypes so the teens coming after them don’t have to, supporting the incredible work of Ida Puliwa and the Othakarhaka Foundation in Mulanje, Malawi, but I think my most meaningful one so far is the one I am working on now. It is a series titled, “Lemonade” and it is my own personal story about living with chronic illness and disability. I would like it to serve as a love letter to the chronic illness community… especially the women who are most gaslighted by medical professionals and others in our communities at large. This is a photographic fine art series with careful attention to raising women up in the process. You see, I, myself, have a life-threatening illness. It is called Myasthenia Gravis and it has thrown me into the deep end of what life is like for women with disabilities/chronic disease.
Our culture has very strong ideas on how I should look, how I should behave, what I should do about my health… if I should exist at all. People start to treat me differently after they’ve known about my condition awhile. They get bored of it. For some, the concern and empathy turn to feeling it a nuisance. I’m just not as fun… or easy to do things with anymore. For some, they seem to think my intelligence and all of my lived experience has lessened in value. My hard-earned credibility as a valued contributor has shrunk. That in and of itself makes my life more difficult. It takes a lot more energy when I must first prove my credibility in order to be taken seriously. It is one of the main reasons most of us put so much effort into faking being well. Simply put, my agency has been taken from me, worse if I do not “look” the part… well enough to make those around me comfortable, but not too well as to look like I am taking advantage of some perceived systemic benefit. People often expect me to look downtrodden and one step from homelessness. Sometimes I do (and many with chronic illnesses are), but usually I do not (as many of us are not). Chronic disease can happen to anyone at any time regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
I would like to show that there is still beauty here, and power, and fight. That I have much yet to offer. Yes, there are challenges and there are truly gruesome moments… and some of that is shared as well… but I mostly aim to shine a spotlight on the resilience and fighting spirit and BEAUTY that still lives within me. There is even a bit of humor. I attempt to make lemonade out of lemons each and every day and I want to shine a special focus on that duality. In keeping with what drives me as an artist, my hope with this project is to educate and inspire.
Patricia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a documentary and fine art photographer, and subtle activist. My goal is to create work that moves people, work that inspires change, especially for women and girls. Studies have shown that if you invest in women and girls, entire communities will be raised. I seek to do just that.
Decades ago, I worked a corporate job. I loved it and was grateful for it. I knew how fortunate I was to have good, steady work and income. Consequently, I would often spend my time off volunteering for organizations working to make life better for others, my hobbled way of paying it forward, I suppose. On a couple of occasions, while volunteering overseas, there arose situations that needed documenting visually. As I always had my camera on me, I was asked to help out in that way. Eventually that happened often enough to where I saw an ongoing need that I could fill, mostly in developing countries. I transitioned straight away from the corporate world to full-time photographer. Of course, all along I worked to hone my photography skills. Working as a documentary photographer, especially in developing countries as I was, you never knew if you were going to need exemplary portrait skills, still life skills, landscape skills, photojournalism skills, lighting skills, etc. etc. I worked hard to make sure my skills wouldn’t hold back the important work being done by these nonprofits and NGOs that were hiring me.
Thus, for the past 17 years I partnered with programs in developing countries, mostly focused on addressing disease and poverty, to document their work, the issues they face, how they are addressing those issues, and the awareness they seek to bring to that work. Alongside this, I have also created bodies of work here in the US to advocate for women and girls. Even now, with a progressive diagnosis of Myasthenia Gravis and the physical limitations that that entails, I continue to create work to improve the lives of my sisters everywhere.
Even my fine art work seeks to tell a story and inspire change. Recently I created a body of work that challenges assumptions and encourages contemplation. We are living in a time when jumping to conclusions has become sport. We’re quick. We’re decisive. Are we right? Fake news has become an art form. It’s everywhere. How can we be so quick and so decisive in our conclusions when so much of what surrounds us is made up? Consequently, I created fine art pieces that rarely represented the materials used… a sort of Rorschach test, if you will.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I am not sure if it is a lesson or multiple lessons, but something I have learned through working with other creatives (and honestly, just other humans) from around the world is that all those rules in photography… you know the ones… leading lines, rules of thirds, etc. are simply man made. Not manmade, mind you, but “man” made. And usually by some middle age white male many many years ago. What has been so beautiful working in other cultures with all genders and identifiers is learning that we do not all see the same way. We are not all attracted to the same things, or in the same ways. I have learned that it is important for people to express their art, their creativity, in ways that fit with who they are. You like your subject in the middle of the frame? Go ahead and put it there. You like your subject to take up only the bottommost left 14% of the frame? Do that! We need everyone’s viewpoint. We need all creativity. See what you see! Express what you feel! Create in your own unique ways!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Obviously, the biggest pivot for me was becoming disabled. I still have many abilities (and fortunately my brain still works), but my physical capacity is less. I can no longer throw a bunch of gear on my back and lug it all over Africa or Central America, for example. This took some adjustment for me. I had developed processes for that work and it was steady. All of a sudden, I needed to find ways to support myself here in the US. I moved to Los Angeles where I knew there would be more opportunity to continue some documentary work, but also because of the incredible art scene here. I focus about 50/50 on fine art and storytelling now… with the occasional documentary gig thrown in if the organization is supportive of working with disabled artists.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.patriciafortlage.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patricia.fortlage/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patriciafortlagephotography
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciafortlage/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/PFortlage
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/fakingwellnesswithpatricia/
Image Credits
Patricia Fortlage