Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

[coupekid]

Saw this:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2009/06/sight_unseen_blind_photographe.html

its an article regarding blind photographers. I really dont mean to be provocative, but, what would be the point of a blind person wanting to get into photography?

I can understand deaf people enjoying creating, and 'listening' to music, as its something you can feel.

Thoughts?

[Pops]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

My first thought was that the 'Sighted Assisant' should really take all the credit.
Taking photographs that could never be viewed does seem a bit pointless but I suppose
only a blind photographer would understand the why of it and most sighted persons would find it very difficult to understand.
They obviously enjoy taking photographs and get some personal satisfaction from it so who are we to question why they do it.

[Autumn]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

Yes, I saw them taking photos on TV and I did wonder what it was all about. Pops you gave a very good answer.

[Ian]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

If you think about it, one of the big rewards of taking a picture is the response you get when you show it to someone. I can understand a blind person getting some enjoyment from feedback of his or her pictures. They may have an abstract quality about them, or an interesting moment can be captured purely by chance.

Ian

[Pops]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

If you think about it, one of the big rewards of taking a picture is the response you get when you show it to someone. I can understand a blind person getting some enjoyment from feedback of his or her pictures. They may have an abstract quality about them, or an interesting moment can be captured purely by chance.

Ian

There must be more to it than that Ian. Your criterea can be applied to all photographers.

[Patrick]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

There must be more to it than that Ian. Your criterea can be applied to all photographers.

From what I have read, few blind people or to use the PC description visibly impaired are actually totally blind. With a little sight even only shadows of some sort images can be produced.
If they get pleasure them more power to their elbow.

Patrick

[Pol]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

From what I have read, few blind people or to use the PC description visibly impaired are actually totally blind. With a little sight even only shadows of some sort images can be produced.
If they get pleasure them more power to their elbow.

Patrick

Exactly! Visual acuity varies from person to person and sight is only ONE of our senses. Furthermore, ALL of our senses vary from person to person.

Photography, like music, is an ART and the expression of that art comes from WITHIN. It's all about passion, the expression of ourself, emotions and the expression of those emotions.

Their photography is all about considered shots, thoughts they've been developing, feelings and inner excitement as they developed the thought, how they'd like to express it, what they SAW with their 'inner eyes' combined with what they saw with whatever 'visual acuity' they have.

Only the truly blind, ie the 'emothionaly blind' are the ones who really can't see. The emotionally stunted individuals, the emotionally barren - those people who show nothing of themselves in their art, whatever that art form may be. It has to come from within and photographers with impaired visual acuity have a HUGE amount to offer - and that's demonstrated on some of their gallery links.

Anybody can wander about snapping "a few from today's walk" - but few seem to be able to FEEL and HEAR what they 'see' then project at least something of their inner self, some soul, into what they capture, project and portray.


Pol

[Stephen]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

Exactly! Visual acuity varies from person to person and sight is only ONE of our senses. Furthermore, ALL of our senses vary from person to person.

Photography, like music, is an ART and the expression of that art comes from WITHIN. It's all about passion, the expression of ourself, emotions and the expression of those emotions.

Their photography is all about considered shots, thoughts they've been developing, feelings and inner excitement as they developed the thought, how they'd like to express it, what they SAW with their 'inner eyes' combined with what they saw with whatever 'visual acuity' they have.

Only the truly blind, ie the 'emothionaly blind' are the ones who really can't see. The emotionally stunted individuals, the emotionally barren - those people who show nothing of themselves in their art, whatever that art form may be. It has to come from within and photographers with impaired visual acuity have a HUGE amount to offer - and that's demonstrated on some of their gallery links.

Anybody can wander about snapping "a few from today's walk" - but few seem to be able to FEEL and HEAR what they 'see' then project at least something of their inner self, some soul, into what they capture, project and portray.


Pol

Very profound Pol, and I find myself agreeing with what you say. In many ways there are parallels to be seen between sighted and visually impaired photographers

[coupekid]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

Some excellent answers there

I guess the feedback from the pictures must be a big part. much like I guess us. its certainly interesting

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

Photography is one of the most inclusive of activities and our images are viewed, enjoyed and judged regardless of the individual. In competitions we are all equal and how many other activities can say that.

I recall being told of a blind photographer, who recorded on tape, all that he could hear, smell, feel and perhaps the most important imagine, then would take a picture or a series if he felt changes were happening. These were then presented as a slide show where he gave the commentary. Few people would believe that he was blind, such was the quality of the presentation, with the amount of detail expressed about what was experienced at the time of taking the images.

If you are ever fortunate enough to meet Barry Lategan he will express his opinion on how so many people look, but so few see... Maybe we need to use more of our sences in our photography.

Food for thought in this thread, maybe we need a competition (Both eyes closed instead of One)

[vip_uc]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

I am a blind photographer, and I'll try to tell you why.

I should explain that "blind" doesn't always mean totally without sight. In the UK, and I believe in the US, registered blind or legally blind means that your sight is so poor that it's not useful for everyday purposes. Like the vast majority of blind people, I fit into this category. I can't read print, recognise faces or be certain what colour many things are. It certainly wouldn't be a good idea for me to drive.

Some completely blind people also take photographs, and some of their work is in the "Sight Unseen" exhibition in Riverside, California.

Some thoughts, then, on what photography does for me....
- I took photos before I was blind and don't see any reason to stop.
- like other people, I want my own personal record of places and people in my life, and I want to carry on sharing pictures as I did when I had more sight.
- the camera can see things that I can't. In many ways, as well as being there for pleasure, a camera might be a practical visual aid. For example, I'm in a strange city and don't know what street I am on. I might vaguely see something that looks like a street name board - if I zoom in with a digital camera I can capture an image of it. If I can't read it even then, I might be able to zoom in on the image that I've taken. I might find it says "Joe's Ice Cream" but you get my drift. By the way, a piece of machinery manufactured especially for blind people that can do the same sort of thing might cost a few thousand dollars, while a couple of hundred might buy me a competent camera.
- I can't see people's faces with any certainty, but if I have a photo of someone, I can look at them on my 22-inch backlit monitor and see them much better.
- because of the peculiar way I see things, I might home in on some mundane object that normally sighted people don't notice, and make an image of it that no-one would have seen if I hadn't taken it. It could be anything- a puddle fringed with sunset light, the play of shadows in a wood, a building that's not quite perpendicular..... all may or may not make interesting shots.

Try my blind photography web page to find out more about different approaches that blind photographers take.

http://www.freewebs.com/batfromhell/blindphotography.html

You'll also see there that there are ways for completely blind people to enjoy images, usually in tactile form, though some people are good at deciphering images converted into sound - I can't say that works for me, unfortunately.

I'm a relative beginner at all this, but the field of blind photography is turning out to be an amazingly rich one.

Vince.

Flickr photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12203105@N04/

Web site

http://www.freewebs.com/batfromhell/

[Ian]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

I am a blind photographer, and I'll try to tell you why.

I should explain that "blind" doesn't always mean totally without sight. In the UK, and I believe in the US, registered blind or legally blind means that your sight is so poor that it's not useful for everyday purposes. Like the vast majority of blind people, I fit into this category. I can't read print, recognise faces or be certain what colour many things are. It certainly wouldn't be a good idea for me to drive.

Some completely blind people also take photographs, and some of their work is in the "Sight Unseen" exhibition in Riverside, California.

Some thoughts, then, on what photography does for me....
- I took photos before I was blind and don't see any reason to stop.
- like other people, I want my own personal record of places and people in my life, and I want to carry on sharing pictures as I did when I had more sight.
- the camera can see things that I can't. In many ways, as well as being there for pleasure, a camera might be a practical visual aid. For example, I'm in a strange city and don't know what street I am on. I might vaguely see something that looks like a street name board - if I zoom in with a digital camera I can capture an image of it. If I can't read it even then, I might be able to zoom in on the image that I've taken. I might find it says "Joe's Ice Cream" but you get my drift. By the way, a piece of machinery manufactured especially for blind people that can do the same sort of thing might cost a few thousand dollars, while a couple of hundred might buy me a competent camera.
- I can't see people's faces with any certainty, but if I have a photo of someone, I can look at them on my 22-inch backlit monitor and see them much better.
- because of the peculiar way I see things, I might home in on some mundane object that normally sighted people don't notice, and make an image of it that no-one would have seen if I hadn't taken it. It could be anything- a puddle fringed with sunset light, the play of shadows in a wood, a building that's not quite perpendicular..... all may or may not make interesting shots.

Try my blind photography web page to find out more about different approaches that blind photographers take.

http://www.freewebs.com/batfromhell/blindphotography.html

You'll also see there that there are ways for completely blind people to enjoy images, usually in tactile form, though some people are good at deciphering images converted into sound - I can't say that works for me, unfortunately.

I'm a relative beginner at all this, but the field of blind photography is turning out to be an amazingly rich one.

Vince.

Flickr photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12203105@N04/

Web site
http://www.freewebs.com/batfromhell/

Hi Vince, welcome to DPNow! I hope you found this thread a positive discussion and thank your for widening our awareness of what's possible in photography.

I hope you will be a regular contributor and if there is anything we can do to help you with your photography, please don't hesitate to ask!

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

<< read but snipped for brevity >>

Try my blind photography web page to find out more about different approaches that blind photographers take.

http://www.freewebs.com/batfromhell/blindphotography.html

You'll also see there that there are ways for completely blind people to enjoy images, usually in tactile form, though some people are good at deciphering images converted into sound - I can't say that works for me, unfortunately.

I'm a relative beginner at all this, but the field of blind photography is turning out to be an amazingly rich one.

Vince.

Flickr photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12203105@N04/

Web site
http://www.freewebs.com/batfromhell/

Hi Vince,

Many thanks for all that and a very warm welcome to the forum! You have some excellent pictures on your Flickr stream and I'm about to enjoy working my way through all those links on your blind photography web page.

I'm fascintaed, but not surprised, that you sometimes use the camera for zooming and enlarging everyday signs and objects. I imagine digital cameras have made an enormous difference to you for that sort of thing - more immediate and instant feedback rather than having to wait for a film to be developed.

Our youngest son was born with hearing, speech and language problems and from a very early age he used pictures for communicating, pointing to tiny details in images for all sorts of reasons. As he grew older he'd direct me to take endless snapshots as we walked about then he'd eagerly await them being developed so he could 'chat' about what where we'd been, what we'd done etc. It never ceased to amaze me what he'd noticed that we had missed on those outings.

I wish we'd had digital cameras in those days! He's much better now, has some reasonable speech now but he still uses cameras, prints and also videos very regularly. He's at home this weekend and busy in another other room right now printing off lots of pictures to show us what he's been doing since he was last home.

Photography is indeed an invaluable means of effectively communicating all sorts of things on all levels and for all people!

Polly

[Pops]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

Thankyou Vince for giving us a first hand account of photography for the blind. Its obvious to me now that a camera is a valuable tool for the blind.
I'm just about to view your site now.

[coupekid]

Re: Sight Unseen (no offence intended!)

I am a blind photographer, and I'll try to tell you why.

I should explain that "blind" doesn't always mean totally without sight. In the UK, and I believe in the US, registered blind or legally blind means that your sight is so poor that it's not useful for everyday purposes. Like the vast majority of blind people, I fit into this category. I can't read print, recognise faces or be certain what colour many things are. It certainly wouldn't be a good idea for me to drive.

Some completely blind people also take photographs, and some of their work is in the "Sight Unseen" exhibition in Riverside, California.

Some thoughts, then, on what photography does for me....
- I took photos before I was blind and don't see any reason to stop.
- like other people, I want my own personal record of places and people in my life, and I want to carry on sharing pictures as I did when I had more sight.
- the camera can see things that I can't. In many ways, as well as being there for pleasure, a camera might be a practical visual aid. For example, I'm in a strange city and don't know what street I am on. I might vaguely see something that looks like a street name board - if I zoom in with a digital camera I can capture an image of it. If I can't read it even then, I might be able to zoom in on the image that I've taken. I might find it says "Joe's Ice Cream" but you get my drift. By the way, a piece of machinery manufactured especially for blind people that can do the same sort of thing might cost a few thousand dollars, while a couple of hundred might buy me a competent camera.
- I can't see people's faces with any certainty, but if I have a photo of someone, I can look at them on my 22-inch backlit monitor and see them much better.
- because of the peculiar way I see things, I might home in on some mundane object that normally sighted people don't notice, and make an image of it that no-one would have seen if I hadn't taken it. It could be anything- a puddle fringed with sunset light, the play of shadows in a wood, a building that's not quite perpendicular..... all may or may not make interesting shots.

Try my blind photography web page to find out more about different approaches that blind photographers take.

http://www.freewebs.com/batfromhell/blindphotography.html

You'll also see there that there are ways for completely blind people to enjoy images, usually in tactile form, though some people are good at deciphering images converted into sound - I can't say that works for me, unfortunately.

I'm a relative beginner at all this, but the field of blind photography is turning out to be an amazingly rich one.

Vince.

Flickr photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12203105@N04/

Web site
http://www.freewebs.com/batfromhell/

Hi Vince,

I cant thank you enough for replying to my thread.
Your first hand account has proved to be both interesting, and educational.

I also hope you will stay with us here at DPNow to share your photography experiences with us.

Thanks again, and just off to view your website!

Ben