Seeing Beyond Sight - photographs by blind teenagers

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So it is with all of us as we consider those who can see, literally, and those who cannot fully seem yet manage to take the world’s measure, figure it out make much out of what is available to them.

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As soon as leuwynda got her camera, she knew what she wanted to do: Photograph the cracks on the sidewalk.

Since you are sighted, you may not notice these cracks. They are a big problem since my white cane gets stuck.

Even if I were not a photographer, I would still, like so much of the world, be depended on sight.

Perhaps people who are blind see more then those who are sighted, perhaps there is seeing beyond sight.

What would children who are blind show us about the world, if they learned to take pictures?

The students would ask questions about their surroundings, feel their subjects with their hands, and listen carefully to the hush and noise around them. It was as if they were listening for sound shadows.

9
The first film roll of John was full with Wendy. He gave prints of there photos to his parents, showed them to all his teachers, and carried them in his backpack everywhere he went.

By using a camera, john was able to show them. Then he proceeded to show everyone who was sighted, something he couldn’t have done if he had only a Braille writer.

It was the secret discovery of being able to possess something I couldn’t look at.

Students found their own reasons for taking pictures in a world that doesn’t expect them to communicate visually. Dain captured his favourite tractor on film, so he could carry the tractor around with him.

I found myself looking for something particular, for something that resembled what I had grown accustomed to seeing in photography. But all I saw were missed opportunities: heads cut off, out of focus images, and photos of odds and ends that seemed to be a waste of our limited film supply.

Over time, though, I came to see the imaged differently. I found that looking at the students photographs and reading their captions was like listening to someone who had recently learned a new language and speaks with surprising originality in her choice of words and unwitting candor.

The more I return to the photographs the more I could see in them; there were always more layers to uncover.

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The mirror, like our minds, distorts our vision of the world.

Describe the details of every image. Our words were their eyes. Students would tell us what they intended to capture and describe their picture-taking experience.

He wanted the sighted world to see her as beautiful.

They appeared to be isolated in their own world if simply because I could stare at them from a distance an they wouldn’t know.

With this project my view is changed.

They weren’t hiding anything; they were just being themselves. Relationships replaced my stereotypes, and the students and I could see each other more clearly. Each time I look at their self-portraits, the students stare at me as much as I am staring at them, as if to remind me that sight can get in the way of seeing.

Photography, I would seem, is all about looks. But the best photographs are great because of what does not appear – leading our imaginations to recruit us as participants.

Despite my best intentions, the students took the most compelling imaged when they ignored the conventional rules of picture taking and just took the photo they wanted. Such as images drew me in with clues about what was hidden just outside the frame, in the shadows, a moment before or after the shutter snapped, or in the unknown intentions of the photographs.

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Once john showed us a picture of a shrimp boat so far in the distance that we thought it was only a picture of seagulls, which he accidentally captured in the foreground. We were so excited that he had caught the seagulls in flight that the picture of the shrimp boat became something quite different. John needed his teachers to see that it was a picture of a shrimp boat, and we needed him to see that it was a picture of seagulls.

Guiding john to notice the seagulls in his picture was one thing, but the whole process of helping our students see made me very conscious of our power as teachers. I couldn’t help but wonder how all my teachers had shaped my way of seeing.

Light is what makes it possible for the eye to see – and for a camera to make photographs – but we don’t usually see light itself.

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I thought of these five groupings as journey toward light- towards an illuminance that is beyond everyone’s eyesight – although the source of light is not fully known.

Which images do I find myself staring at, and why? Who would I see these images if I didn’t know the photographers were blind? If I consider their point of view – their experience with visual impairment – how might I understand the picture differently?

Each new piece I notice, whispers – in a still, small voice – pay attention to the cracks.

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I was thinking that it would be sort of hard for a blind person to take pictures, but it’s not very hard. You’ve just got to listen.

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Had you taken pictures before?
By myself? No.
Did you think you could do it?
Yeah, but focusin’ on something wasn’t too easy, though, ‘cause I couldn’t see nothing.
How did you do?
Just feelin’ what I’m aimin’ for and then go back and aim at it – right at it and push the button.

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I learned that using a camera and taking pictures is kind of an art. I did a few crooked pictures just to see what they look like. That was pretty interesting.

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Finally, I could see enough to get around.

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If the lights are off, I can see what I’m doing

141
We can show other people that there is more to being blind of visually impaired than you think. We can do more than what you think we can do.
Little did our students know that their stories and images would also show us how much more there is to seeing, beyond eyesight.

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By using photographs to symbolize their ideas, some students developed an understanding of metaphors.

Students with no vision or light perception often imprinted Braille captions on their picture.

They were transformed into meaningful physical objects. Students used these prints to remember their images, to organize them with other images and to choose which ones to show people – just as anyone would carry pictures of loves ones in their wallets.

Sometimes photography allowed students to communicate their ideas much more easily than they could in writing.

She had plenty of stories, though, and photography became her way of telling them.

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Most people see to photograph, I photograph to see.

People often think that people who are blind develop a superhuman sense of hearing to compensate for the lack of eyesight.

144
Photography has encouraged my son to explore his environment by trying to look for things to photograph. Students learned how to interact with people and places by taking pictures.

Photography provided students with firsthand experiences that were normally unavailable to them and sometimes beyond the reach of most people with sight.

To take pictures, he had to ask about everything in the production and broadcast studios, explore the space with his hands, and decide which parts were most important to capture on film.

The students were not learning to see; they were learning seeing – a process that requires all human faculties.

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Cause it’d give students a chance to see what things are like, have people describe things to them so they’ll know what’s around them.

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We see things different