ECHOLILIA / Sometimes I Wonder
A Father’s Photographic Conversation with His Autistic Son

“Echolilia” is an alternate spelling of a more common term, “echolalia,” used in the autistic community to refer to the habit of verbal repetition and copying that is commonly found in autistic kids’ behavior. I liked the idea of it: photography is a form of copying. Kids are a form of repetition. And looking at my kid with photography allowed me to see myself anew.

Timothy Archibald: “I’m the photographer agencies call to make empathetic photographs of things that are a little bit different, a little bit curious. Human, humorous and sometimes subversive, these qualities seem to surface in every project we take on. I was fortunate to discover photography as a teenager. At that time photography was this license to meet people and enter worlds unlike my own. Having the power to enter other cultures different from the suburban world I lived in was a powerful tool for a kid to have. After leaving school with a degree in Art, I began using this human curiosity to support myself. Photography allowed me to explore the subjects I was fascinated with: learn about them, humanize them, and view them with the full range of human emotions they deserved, in conjunction with a voice that was uniquely my own. These same values come into play with what I’m doing now. Over the past 12 years our photographs have regularly been celebrated in Communication Arts Photography Annual, American Photography Annual and have been exhibited in places as wonderful as The Australian Centre for Photography, Zephyr Mannheim Gallery in Germany and Videotage in Hong Kong. But on the set, my crew and I are really not afraid to admit that we are total photo nerds who love what we do. And that love is infectious in every job we do.”