ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of the visual representation of disabled performers; the approach that classical music adopts when portraying disability. It discusses the role of photography in the visual representation of physical, mental, intellectual and sensory diversity within the world of music performance. In Western societies, the visual representation of people with disabilities tends to follow a systematic pattern: to avoid specific depictions or portrayals of impairments. Cultural representations of disability tend to visually subordinate- and sometimes outright eliminate- human diversity in Western societies. In the world of classical music, the visual representation of performers with disabilities accomplishes a careful balance between the reluctance to show anything too specific and the tendency to focus the viewer's attention on impairments. The cover-pictures of the Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie offer a compelling point of departure to explore the iconography of invisible disabilities- that is, those that manifest through actions.
