Glasses can be a Powerful Symbol

Glasses play an important part in how we see our world: Glasses are necessary to make our driving safe; glasses help us read not just roadsigns but great literature; glasses allow us to see everything from furniture assembly instructions to artworks clearly. And glasses let us focus on faces. Without glasses, the world would be a fuzzy, and hazardous, place to live. But beyond their functional role, glasses have come to represent a whole host of cerebral values such as creativity, intelligence, a bookish nature, a mathematical brain or scientific examination. Glasses act like a visual shorthand in film and TV as a signifier of a character's intelligence. And it's not surprising when you consider some of the most famous glasses wearers in recent history.

 

 

There are certain people in history that are hard to think about without seeing them wearing their customary glasses – John Lennon's glasses have become iconic and comedians such as Eric Morecombe are associated with their glasses. Woody Allen's glasses represent his quirky wit. As such, glasses have moved beyond being something necessary to help improve vision - they have become expressions of personality and individuality.
And it seems even after death, glasses can represent a person's essence and be shorthand to their fame – many fans of Lennon have adopted Lennon style glasses in their teenage years in homage to the singer-songwriter.

 

 

And even for the lesser cult stars, such as TV's Richard Whiteley, the former Countdown presenter who died in 2005, his glasses are very much tied up with his personality. After his death, Whiteley gave three pairs of his glasses to visually impaired people in Ethiopia. Although not a huge amount of glasses, the publicity around the gesture helped raise awareness of charities such as Vision Aid Overseas that recycles unwanted glasses. Whiteley's glasses were something of a trademark for the man, who died aged 61. For his long-term partner Kathryn Apanowicz, she felt the donation of his glasses was a way for his memory to live on.

 

 

The idea of using pairs of glasses after death as a kind of memorial was taken a step further in an exhibition in Liverpool. The 'Respectacles' show featured 100,000 pairs of donated glasses to highlight the horrors of the holocaust. The exhibition tied in with the Holocaust Memorial Day to represent the thousands of deaths at Auschwitz. Glasses were donated by famous glasses wearers including Yoko Ono, Daniel Radcliffe and Tony Blair. Glasses can clearly be a powerful and enduring symbol.

 

 

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