“Towel Time” was photographed by Marielle and conceptualized by Olive Patton for her master’s thesis discussing crip time- a term that reclaims the word “crip” and ruptures expectations on time centered on capitalistic ideals. “Towel Time” invites an intimate look into crip time through film photography to increase accessible community conversations.
We see sisters, Olive and Madeleine, caretaking for each other during an Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) pain flare-up, which they often experience. To accurately reflect Olive’s phrase, towel time, it was essential to show care work as joyful instead of strictly transactional. These photos highlight tenderness, intimacy, caretaking, kinship, interdependence, and the beauty that disability and chronically ill communities radiate. Despite EDS being rare and severe, it's invisibilized due to symptoms being unnoticeable. Olive placed rhinestones on her and Madeleine's bodies in places they experience pain to visualize her and Madeleine's invisible chronic pain.
Marielle photographed the sisters exclusively on film to capture our themes: beauty in unpredictability, stillness, and slowing down time. She also used Glimmer Glass to visualize the brain fog that often accompanies those diagnosed with EDS.
