A Blind Photographer - can it be in reality???

[ruslan safin]

http://zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/bavcar/index.html

[rob_sollett]

Hey, why not! Before I retired from news work, I worked for many a "blind editor."

[rick_waldroup3]

Many years ago there was a program on the American television show "60 Minutes" about a blind photographer. If I remember right he was a photographer before an accident crippled him. This was back in the days before autofocus cameras. He designed the shots and had assistants actually stage them and then he pushed the shutter button. I did not see it then and I do not see it now. If my eyes were my tool for expression and I lost that tool, I think I would find something else to do. I do not mean to be cruel- but I just think I would find some other outlet for my artistic endeavors.

[dai_hunter]

rob sollett , jul 20, 2005; 06:25 a.m.

Hey, why not! Before I retired from news work, I worked for many a "blind editor."

 

LOL, I have worked for a few of them too. More than a few. Once it was: "Hunter, give me 250 words and make it "snappy"" He actually got a page dropped on his desk as follows:

 

Snappy, snappy, snappy, snappy, snappy, snappy, snappy, snappy, snappy, snappy.... (plus 240 additional snappys)

 

Blue pencil at the ready, he wanted to debate every story's content. He thought he was a master at it. I took to referring to him (out of his hearing of course) as the "master debater." Photo editors, too, often seem to have gone to the same school.

 

I, gladly, no longer work for that publication. ROTFLMAO

 

Hunter

[nick_evans1]

I used to work in a camera shop, and there was a chap who came in on a regular basis.

 

He was deaf & mute and he had such bad tunnel vision that he was registered blind and walked with a white stick.

 

He bought a load of Mamiya 645 gear, then went off on his own to Japan for three months.

 

When he got back we were curious to see the pictures, and ok a couple were way out but more than 90% were spot on and really beautiful.

 

So I suppose the answer to your question is yes you can be a blind photographer

 

Yours

 

Nick

[mfeetham]

Here's a link to a previous thread on photo.net <a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00AZwS">about blind people taking picures.</a>

[h._p.]

I suppose one isn't allowed to be politically incorrect and point out that, as a blind photographer can't see what he's photographing, whatever he ends up with is pure chance? After all, how does he get feedback? Does someone describe the image to him and how does he frame it? All I have is questions about this because it sounds as believable to me as teaching a fish to sing Verdi.

 

On the other hand, there was an article in Amateur Photographer, last year I think, about a chap who had severe visual impairment but still managed to turn out surprisingly interesting images.

 

It's a strange old world.

[rich_ullsmith1]

Hey Dai, that is beautiful. Gimme some more.

[patrick j dempsey]

Considering the amount of time he spends putting together these images i would harldy call the finished product "chance". I think the work of wildlife photogrphers, sports photographers or journalistic photographers has a much higher level of "chance" than these images. If you take the time to browse through all the images you will realize that you are not looking at a random collection of images at all, but a truely complete vision from concept to execution... the amazing thing to me is that this blind man isnt just Taking these photographs, but hes orchestrating what must be a truely complex procedure to arrive at the final image! Coordinating the props and lighting and models to acheive exactly the image thats in his mind. Which he seems to be quite succesfully capturing in the finished photograph. The only still images I can think of which came close to this level of control and vision is the Dali series by Philippe Halsman. I think these days, few art photographers invest this much time and energy into one image.... i think some commercial photographers do, and certainly most cinematographers.

 

His work reminds me of the paintings of Michealangelo... which dont portray convincing illusion of light and color like Davinci, but instead remind me of scultures... paintings done by someone who spent alot of time feeling the three dimensional mass of reality. An image of an object, as opposed to flat patterns of light and dark.... as he describes them himself... an Icon. Something truely interesting to look at, and I think quite beauitful photographs!

[h._p.]

"Considering the amount of time he spends putting together these images i would harldy call the finished product "chance"."

 

That's right, pick a fight instead of answering my question.

 

If the guy's completely blind, how can he make these pictures? How does he get the feedback to know what he's doing? How can he even aim the camera? ("I hold the camera in my mouth" isn't very illuminating)

 

How does he know what image he has? How does he print it to the right depth? How does he set up the framing on the baseboard of an enlarger?

 

So does he have people who do these things for him? Aren't they then the real photographers? Is this just another self publicist with a flair for misdirection?

 

Questions, questions, questions and, as yet, no answers.

[rick_waldroup3]

Harvey, this is the point I was trying to make in my first post. You have definately described it much better than I could. I agree with you that for this particular endeavor (photography), eyesight is esential. Once again, this is not meant to be insensitive to anyone, but I just do not buy into this. I can imagine what shots look like, but I feel I would need to see what I had imagined before I pressed the shutter.

[terra_pulchra_photo]

It is an interesting situation. Cameras are so automatic that a blind person could produce an excellent photograph. Next time you look at a photograph you admire, ask yourself.."how can I be sure this was not created by a blind person." One really has no idea whether a photo made today was done by a sighted or a blind person.

[chris_waller]

Yes, I've known of two. One was in northern Ireland and was, I believe, blinded by a bomb explosion. He shoots with an autofocus camera and someone else does his printing.

[Allen Herbert]

Blind Photographer - can it be in reality???

 

Why not if his enjoying himself. Photography is a lot to do with that...it's not all about arse watching..

 

He's work looks better than mine to my eye. Perhaps it's something to do with feeling the atmosphere around you rather than just seeing.

[mfeetham]

If the person gained experience in photography before he/she went blind, then the results they get aren't necessarily all up to chance. They could easily describe to an assistant how they want lights set up. They can describe to a model how to sit and pose. They can feel the model to adjust positioning.

 

Beethoven wrote a great symphony while deaf. I don't think that happened by pure luck.

[john falkenstine]

Once in a while, after seeing some stunning photographs well outside my concept of photography, I realize that I am blind as well in certain aspects.

[phyrpowr]

Any person who uses a camera to take a picture is a photographer, PERIOD

 

Whether or not the resulting picture is of any interest is a whole other subject, and why he does it isn't any concern of mine

[vic_.]

A bit off course, but there was an entertaining Australian movie in 1991 about a blind photographer, with the then young Russell Crowe:

<p>

<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102721/">CLICK HERE for "Proof"</a>

[max_andres]

My Brother runs/teaches a collective of blind photographers in NYC. Rather than the normal

"capturing a moment in time" they are building luminous constructions, using a darkened

room, with poses and props that they "paint with light" using a flashlight. The results can be

amazingly philosophical. Since appearing in an article, and having a book published by

lighthouse, the groups popularity has taken off with shows worldwide. here's the URL for the

book, http://www.aperture.org/store/books-detail.aspx?ID=210<div></div>

[edgreene]

Before I retired, Photography Guild members volunteered to teach Photography to kids at our Boy & Girls club. The local electrical utility donated their lab equipment and we were all set to begin when the Director said: "we'll have to make it wheelchair accessible".<br>?Errr?, they can shoot OK, but how are they to dip and dunk or dry or operate an enlarger, especially for large 11 x 14 and larger prints?? ?Furthermore, there is not enough floor space in the room for a wheelchair, considering the counters will be 30? wide. Or that in order to operate an enlarger, the counter would have to be built so the handles of the wheelchair fit under them, which makes the enlarger too tall for those not in a wheelchair??<p>The boxing instructor settled the argument, and the ridiculous anal retentive stance of the director with this quip: ?I guess you?ll be building a ramp up side my ring, too?? <p>Here in NYC, wheelchair stations in the Subway are far and few between. There are a few stations where as many as six flights of stair have to be climbed to ingress/egress a station. Hell, the six blocks of ramps between the ?A/C/E? Train and the 4/5/6 Trains at 42nd street kick-butt all by themselves. There are Bodegas and other ?hole on the wall? shops here that can barely seat 4 people, and that in a crunch.[p]The sightless ought to be able to do whatever they want. But they ought to be able to do things the way everyone else does. ?<i>Help aiming the camera</i>? is the first clue that something is awry with the philosophy and purpose of the ADA.

[reel]

hi i am new here - and searching for information related to blind photographer OTTO LITZEL. any hints very appreciated. is he still alive?

 

regards

[tim obrien photos]

I have started a Flickr group for <a href="http://flickr.com/groups/blind_photographers/">Blind Photographers</a>. I am legally, though not totally, blind.