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Snaps show cities from a rare perspective

Skateboarder's condition inspires travel photos in new permanent exhibition

By Curtis M. Wong
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
July 4th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Kevin Connolly, 21, has received a grant financing trips to Switzerland and Iceland.
Photo by Kevin Connolly
Connolly takes pictures from street-level.
Armed with a backpack, a camera and a skateboard for transportation, Kevin Connolly has traveled the world over. After completing a study-abroad program in New Zealand last fall, he embarked on a venture that took him to Ukraine, Austria, Ireland and the east coast of the United States.
As he sips a beer in the pub of the Plus Prague Hostel in Prague 7, where his photos are now on permanent display, he discusses his hopes for future projects. A touring photo exhibit may be on the horizon, while a grant will soon fund more travel photos in Europe.  
What makes all of this especially remarkable is that Connolly was born without legs. His condition is the result of what doctors call a sporadic birth defect. There is no solid medical explanation and he has experienced no other physical effects.
The condition has done little to slow the Montana native, who proudly displays his travel photos, colorful cityscapes uniquely shot at street level.
“If I could take photos, and not have to do anything but take photos, I would be an immensely happy person,” Connolly says. “It’d be nice to get a touring photo exhibition going. Most of my photography has an international flavor anyway, so I think it needs to go in that direction.”
Much of Connolly’s work — including recent shots from Los Angeles, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Paris and Prague — will remain on permanent display in the hostel’s restaurant. After returning to the States in December, the 21-year-old Montana State University student received a photography grant that’s financing a second international excursion that will take him to Switzerland, England and Iceland in the coming weeks.
Connolly has never let his condition stand in the way of his ambitions. He remains remarkably good-natured about his situation, a trait he credits his parents with fostering.
“There wasn’t a shark attack or a mining accident or anything cool involved,” he quips. “Basically, I just had to learn from a really young age to adapt to whatever situations and surroundings were around me in order to get around. It was my parents’ decision to not treat me in any way as being disabled. So I always made a point to stay active.”
Wearing what he calls “moccasin pants” — a leather seat with a rubber sole that resembles a large slipper — he moves as independently as possible. To build upper-body strength, he enrolled in gymnastics at age 7, and began competitive skiing as a teenager by means of a custom-built device for balance. Although he’d used a wheelchair previously, he started skateboarding at 18, finding it the most convenient way to commute around his university campus.   
Having been featured in a documentary about disabled skiing, as well as in candid photos by curious passers-by, Connolly’s interest in photography began in his late teens.  
“I think it came about as a result of being photographed and filmed all of the time myself,” he says, recalling a childhood trip to Walt Disney World where an entire group of tourists asked him to pose with them. “There weren’t any high-minded artistic aspirations at first.”  
He shot the first photo of his international series during his stay in Vienna, after noticing a man staring at him as he crossed the street on his skateboard. Holding the camera to his hip, he snapped the photo in passing without looking through the viewfinder. It turned out to be a winning technique.
“The funny thing is that it wasn’t even intended as a good photograph,” he says. “I was feeling homesick and I’d just gotten fed up with everyone staring at me. So it was basically a passive-aggressive way for me to get a sort of retribution. But it turned out [the street-level view] was a perspective that people hadn’t really seen before in photos.”
It turns out Ed Dischler, marketing manager of Plus Prague, was also keen on the photos – so much so that he invited Connolly to display his work at the hostel’s restaurant after hearing about Connolly through a friend.
Depending on which country he’s traveling in, Connolly gets differing reactions from the locals. In Kyiv, he was often mistaken for a religious zealot; in West European cities, many assumed he was a beggar, often stuffing loose change into his pockets.
“Just because of the sheer oddity of my situation, I’ve wound up in a lot of really interesting positions,” he says. “My first step in every city is seeing how different cultures react to my condition. It always sparks an interesting dialogue with the locals. … And sometimes their curiosity can generate a full-on conversation.”  
Despite all this, Connolly says his international photo excursions have been remarkably smooth — although he does acknowledge two minor problems he’s encountered while shooting his street-level photos here in Prague.
“Cobblestones are not fun,” he says with a laugh. “And I hadn’t worried about miniskirts.”

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at cwong@praguepost.com


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[16:54 24/09/2008] : I will never ever again feel Sory for myself ever
I was born with a Facial and Feet deformity
I now have a Bierd and I had my feet reconstructed
IM ONE OF THE LUCKY ONES MATE ;-)
TAKE CARE "LEDGENDMAN"
Your quite an "Inspiration"
My wife has MD she is the most wonderfull person in the world
I never thought someone would fall in love with me
BUT SHE DID AND SHE HAS MODEL LOOKS TRIPPY STUFF
ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
Paul Townsend
Adelaide Australia
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