What are you looking at?

Kevin Connolly was born without legs. While you’re staring at Kevin Connolly, rolling down the street on his skateboard, he may be staring back at you through the lens of his camera. He’s got a body of photos called The Rolling Exhibition that consist of the photos he’s taken in 15 countries while rolling around on a skateboard, all shot from his low point of vantage. He’s been at it for a while, obviously. I’m late with this post because I couldn’t decide whether or not it was skateboard-related enough. Now I’m feeling negligent because the story is popping up all over, so here it is. Kevin’s photos are mostly about people staring at him, a legless man on a skateboard:

Everyone tries to create a story in their heads to explain the things that baffle them. For the same reason we want to know how a magic trick works, or how mystery novel ends, we want to know how someone different, strange, or disfigured came to be as they are. Everyone does it. It’s natural. It’s curiosity…

…But before any of us can ponder or speculate – we react. We stare. Whether it is a glance or a neck twisting ogle, we look at that which does not seem to fit in our day to day lives. It is that one instant of unabashed curiosity – more reflex than conscious action – that makes us who we are and has been one of my goals to capture over the past year.

Check out Kevin’s captured stares at The Rolling Exhibition. There’s a 2007 feature on Kevin in both the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and the Billings Gazette.