[2] Blind Photography Links
a blind flaneur » Curiosity & The Blind Photographer - the changing climate around blindness, starting from the era when a photographer would take covert photographs of blind people to the social networking age where blind people generate content.
A blind photographer struggles.. -- Planes, Trains and Automobiles blog - a review of a film about a blind photographer, friendship, deception and hiding away from life.
Alien Junk: Blind Photography Project - blidnfolded students use blind photography techniques.
Aperture - "A teenage boy who suffers from acute blindness has a dream of becoming a photographer. He travels through the days taking photos and trying to fit in with normal society until he meets a girl who changes his perspective forever. Short film. There is some dialogue eventually!
Armed with a camera, the blind capture their world - the organisations
Beijing One Plus One Cultural Exchange Center and
PhotoVoice UK ran photography workshops in Beijing in May 2009. This story is also covered in
Beijing Today. In collaboration with
China Vision, a UK charity, the exhibition, "
Sights Unseen" ran at the end of May 2009 in Beijing.
Art Beyond Sight - a one stop resource for bringing art and culture to people with visual impairments. The
Network includes interdisciplinary discussion groups and links to mailing lists and accessible arts education. There is also a listing of useful equipment and contacts.
ArtSlant - contemporary arts network, including artists' profiles and a range of communities.
[Book] Arts, Culture, and Blindness: A Study of Blind Students in the Visual Arts by Simon Hayhoe
BBC NEWS - Video: Photo exhibition for the blind - in Ukraine - each item has a tactile version and audio description.
BBC Radio 4 - In Touch, 25th July 2006 - transcript and audio include an item on photography for blind people. John Welsman and Ken Keen explain their differing reasons for taking photographs and how they achieve their results. The broadcast is in
Real Audio.
Beautifully Blind ~ I See With My Heart - blog by two sisters, one sighted, the other blind. Robin, the blind sister, has started to get into photography.
RSS Feed
Best of Blind Photographers - blog giving news and photos from the Blind Photographers' Flickr Group.
Atom Feed
RSS Feed. Also visit
The Blind Photographers Blog
RSS Feed.
Beyond Sight: Blind Photography in China - appeal for funds to train facilitators. Aim is to increase public awareness of blindness and promote advocacy.
Birmingham art museum becomes touching experience for blind - Birmingham, Alabama, is hosting an exhibition of tactile reproductions and sculpture in its continuing efforts to make art accessible to blind people.
Blind Artists' Society - for artists with impaired vision or those who care for VI people.
Blind at the Museum - this event (conference and exhibits) in California in 2005 tried to re-frame ideas about access to visual art.
KQED Radio 'Forum' program on this (mp3 audio)
Blind But In Focus - video featuring several skilled blind photographers.
Blind people taking pictures in Bolivia - start of a discussion thread.
Blind Photographers - video in which several blind photographers describe how they work.
Blind photographers exposed at Jerusalem exhibit
Blind Photography - the Blind Photographers exhibition in Israel. The site is in
English and
Hebrew. See also
YouTube Video: Button - Blind Photography
Blind photography: Making impossible possible - Samara Currimbhoy explores photography, film, advertising, animation and special effects. Page has embedded video. Photography, blind people and deaf people in India.
Blind Photography Listmania list by Timothy O'Brien
Blind Sight - Express India - students at Victoria Memorial School for the Blind, Mumbai, exhibit their photography.
Blind Visitors Photography Project @ Victoria and Albert Museum - the results of a blind visitors' photography course, taught by Eric Richmond, are shown at
Photographs by Blind and Partially Sighted Visitors
Blind use cameras to capture their world - the work of the Local Eyes project in Sydney, Australia, that includes 3 blind photographers.
Blind With Camera - "Empowering the Visually Impaired through the Art of Photography" - a photography project in Mumbai, India. The site includes the philosophy of the project, videos, articles and the examples of the work of participants. Also visit
A Visual Journey of my Mind's Eye
The video,
A Blinding Clarity for Photography, shows students from the project, including Kanchan Pamnani, a blind solicitor. Blind With Camera is supported by the Beyond Sight Foundation.
'Blind/Sight: Conversations with the Visually Impaired' exhibition: unexpected views of the world - at the Phillips eye Institute, Minneapolis, Jan 2009. Photographs by documentary photographer Billy Howard following conversations with visually impaired people about how they see the world.
Blind Sided Facebook Group started by Kerry Pringle of the London Blind-Sided Gallery Project.
BlindArt is a UK charity that encourages visually impaired people to participate in the visual arts.. Exhibitions include "Sense and Sensuality", hinting at the organisation's multi-sensory approach. To keep up with artists and events, join the
BlindArt Forums
Camera Selector - search for a camera that matches your requirements.
Cardiff University showcases photography by visually impaired - these images originate in the 'Sight of Emotion' project in London and Mexico City. Organised by
PhotoVoice
China Central TV: Young photographers defy disability - article and video. Over a hundred blind children's photos are on display at the art museum at Beijing's Millennium Monument
[Video] CNN's Paula Hancocks meets Israel's blind photographers, challenging perceptions that only the sighted can take a good photo.
Color Rules of Thumb - a useful exploration of the effects of colour in various contexts.
DAB Photography Online - "Bringing Disabled and Able-Bodied Photographers Together" - UK-based forum. Also visit
DAB Photography: Online Community for Disabled Photographers - a satisfied member comments and compares it to
Flickr
digital-vision a Yahoo! group for blind photographers. To subscribe, send a blank e-mail to
digital-vision-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Don't put anything in the subject line or body of the e-mail.
Disability Arts Online - at the forefront of the disability arts evolution - This UK site is aimed primarily at deaf and disabled people, but it is wide-ranging, and features diverse artists and forms, including photography.
Disabled Photographers' Society is a UK-based charity that runs photographic competitions and a forum, and loans adapted equipment to members.
Dog's Eye View Blog includes some personal notes on blind photography. Vist
The Confusion,
The Photography Questions, and
A Physicist or a Photographer?
Dominique Shaw: Artist opens photography up to the blind - Dominique Shaw worked with a totally blind person to come up with ways of capturing images that can be turned into tactile print. Also visit
Dominique Shaw's Sunderland University Showcase. She says, "My work explores the boundaries between the visually impaired and the sighted. It examines the notions of vision and the visual and opens up a dialogue around sight and non-sight, perception, the image and the imagination."
Touch-based photography experiment - Dominique Shaw, a photography graduate, worked with blind Adam Tuck to produce tactile images of photographs that are meaningful to someone who has never had sight.
[Alt-0] Main Menu
Eco on blindness and the arts - based Leicester, UK. The site includes links to organisations and study materials, galleries and a calendar of events.
Facing Diversity Conference: Leveling the Field in Photographic Arts - conference in Philadelphia in March 2010. Topics planned include photography by teens, working class people, native people and blind people.
Flickr Groups
Freeze frame: See how the blind see - first blind photography exhibition in India shows the abstract world seen by blind people that might puzzle those with sight.
From one form of “shooting” to another - legally blind photographer Mina describes the beginning phase.
HDR | High Dynamic Range - Trey Ratcliff, who is blind in one eye, uses this technique, which involves several shots of the same subject at different aperture and shutter speeds. This may give the images more depth than you get from a single shot.
He Saw a Hummingbird by Norma Lee Browning - photographer going blind has an encounter with a hummingbird that changes his life.
inspi.re - compete, learn, share - friendly artistic competition and community.
Inspirational Blind Photographers and their Portfolios - honorable mentions for several well-known, and some less well-known, blind photographers.
Invisible Power - review of this Japanese book that celebrates blind photographers.
Learning photography from my "blind" companion - how a sighted and a blind person collaborated to explore exhibits in museums, benefiting both.
Lights Out, Camera, Action. olegich - cameras that can see in the dark. Also visit
Night Photography Without Flash - RWS Photo Blog - Dark Photography, invented by New York University's Dilip Krishnan and Rob Fergus, is a technique for merging an infra-red image with an ultra-violet one to produce a clear image with true colour without flash. Could this be of use to those with night blindness, or anyone who wants to see in the dark?
Live Life Trailer - film about a (fictional) Chinese blind photographer.
Local Eyes, Sydney, supported by the United Way organisation, is a project where 40 or so visually impaired people were given a digital camera and mentoring support.
More information
Local photographer goes abroad - Meg Majors is to document the lives of deaf-blind students in Ghana with photography.
Loss of eyesight doesn't hinder artists contributing to gallery - the "Creative Vision" exhibition at Tillie Lewis Theater, Stockton, Ca, Feb to Mar, 2009, fetured several well-known blind photographers.
More on the exhibitors
Marcia Smilack - reflectionist - synesthesia and photography - she often knows when to take a photograph when she has one of her 'synaesthetic moments'. Maybe some blind photographers have this ability?
National Arts Disability Center (USA) - "Promoting the Full Inclusion of Artists and Audiences with Disabilities into all Facets of the Arts Community" - many resources, including grants and web directories.
National Exhibits of Blind Artists (NEBA) - Philadelphia-based organisation that promotes the interests of blind artists. Exhibitions and awards.
Obscura - video featuring Kurt Weston, Bruce Hall and Pete Eckert speaking for themselves. Produced by Damon Stea
Open-source camera may help reinvent digital photography - maybe a developer could include accessibility software with such a camera?
More info on petapixel
[Alt-0] Main Menu
Painting with Light - Fred Hatt explains how he makes images with various lighting techniques. He explains briefly photograms and light paintings.
Partho Bhowmick teaches photography for the blind - at a workshop in Mumbai, blind participants use point-anbd-shoot 35mm or SLR cameras.
Passionate Focus 2007: Art exhibit by legally blind - the exhibition ran in Chicago in September, 2007. One of the exhibitors is Charlie Grover, a photographer with central vision loss. More details at
Guild for the Blind.
Photographers with disabilities - this UK group offers meetings and studio days, forum, exhibitions in Bristol, UK. Hopes to raise funds for a permanent, accessible studio in Bristol and eventually other parts of the UK.
Photography for the Non-Visual - Wish Me Luck! - a different take on non-visual. Maura Anderson does not have an eye problem, but she can't conjure up mental images, even in dreams.
Photo Talk Radio - 6/23/2007 - includes visual art by visually impaired photographers Bruce Hall and Pete Eckert.
Photographs Described for Blind and Partially Sighted Visitors at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Museum regularly holds talks and study days for visually impaired people.
Photography: A New Angle on Seeing - article about a group of visually impaired photographers in Israel. The article explains what motivates the group, and some of the techniques they use.
PhotographyBLOG - Photography News, Reviews, Articles, Gallery, Forums, Film and Digital. Includes information relevant to the UK as well as North America.
RSS feed
Photography for the Visually Impaired - an account of a course provided by York University in the early 1990s. From the British Journal of Visual Impairment. Inaccessible PDF.Not sure if this is still available.
Photos of Japan by blind photographers. Includes touch-and-feel pictures.
Photos with a light technique - sight-impaired artists work with exposures. Some insight into the way a group of New York blind photographers produced their work.
Photovoice is an organisation that encourages participatory photography.
Beyond Sight: A multi-sensory exhibition took place in London from 3rd to 8th December 2007. They have sponsored projects all over the world.
PhotoVoice: Photography by blind people - Audio slideshow: - BBC page that illustrates the kinds of photos you can expect at the PhotoVoice Exhibition in London, 19th-23rd January, 2010.
PhotoVoice Lecture Series - China: Portrait of a Country - proceeds from the book of this name will go towards supporting blind and partially-sighted photographers in China and the UK. The book tells the untold history of China through the lenses of over 80 Chinese photographers.
Picture this - Israeli project enables new blind photographers to express themselves.
Poor vision shooter - PhotoCamel Forum discussion
Professor teaching blind people how to take pictures - The Korean Herald - Yang Jong-hoon has taught blind people photography for 21 years. He has now written a book, being published in Braille, on the subject. Also read
Class proves that seeing is believing, about one of the class participants, Kim Gyeong-shik.
Proof, 1991, Australia, 90 min., Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse, Drama - a film about a blind photographer. Love triangle involving a blind photographer. Why would a blind man take photographs?
More info
Proofing with portable DVD - David Tejadaa explains his method of seeing a larger image of what comes into the camera.
Researchmonkeys' Blog - various items about visual impairment and the arts are included.
RSS Feed
Revealed - photography for visually impaired people « Tales of One City (Edinburgh City Libraries Blog) - following the
Revealed Exhibition, some recommendations for further reading on visually impaired photographers. The event was also covered by
Edinburgh Evening News It will run from Tuesday, 22nd September until Tuesday, 20th October 2009 at RNIB Scotland, 12/14 Hillside Crescent, Edinburgh.
Press release
Seeing Beyond Sight: Photographs by Blind Teenagers - a project and a
book by Tony Deifell.
KQED (SF) Radio discussion, also available as an
mp3 download. Also visit
Lighting the Way, a
Video: founder describes the project and the
seeingbeyondsight YouTube Channel. Look out for the film, too. This book is available to
Bookshire members
Seeing Beyond Sight Challenge - anyone can try it. See with more than your eyes....
Seeing life through the eyes of the visually challenged - Alfonso Ayew led a photography project for blind people in the Quad Citie.
Seeing My Images: The Process Project - members of the
Flickr Blind Photographers Group look at the interaction between their visual impairments and the way they make photographs.
Seeing with Photography Collective based in New York City, the Collective includes blind, partially sighted and fully sighted people. The people behind the "Shooting Blind" exhibition.
Lifting the Blindfold is a video featuring the voices of members. There is also a book,
Shooting Blind, detailed under Shooting Blind below. The film
Blind Faith (2007) contains first-hand accounts of how members carry out their work.
WINK Magazine, Issue 2 has an article entitled "In the Absence of Light", featuring the Seeing with Photography Collective. Readers using assistive technology might find this Flash presentation impossible to use.
Shared Visions, an exhibit at the Southern California College of Optometry, Fullerton. The free exhibit represented 34 blind painters and photographers. This is a related
Audio Slide Show
Shooting Blind - life experiences of blindness, photos by blind people and photos of blind people.
Shooting Blind: Photographs by the Visually Impaired book by Edward Hoagland, published by Aperture. Features photographs by members of the New York Seeing With Photography Collective, who have varying degrees of sight. The technique of light-painting with flashlights was used here, and the photos include many faces. Large, legible print. ISBN 0893819948.
Shooting in Low Light As a Blind Photographer - Chris Gampat shares his experience.
Shooting the iPhone - it seems that the current iPhone 3GS is accessible to blind people, including the camera.
Sight of Emotion - blind photography project in Mexico, sadly the video is no longer available on the Channel 4 TV web site, but there is
a video on MySpace (Spanish with English subtitles) - I don't know whether this is all or part of the original.
Sight Unseen
Sight Unseen - claimed to be the first major museum exhibition of blind photography, Sight unseen ran from May 2nd to August 29th, 2009 at California Museum of Photography, Riverside. Featured photographers included many well-known names, such as Alice Wingwall and Evgen Bavcar.
Sights Unseen: Exhibition of Photographic Works by Visually Impaired People from China, Britain and Mexico Beijing, May 2009.
.
Read review. Audio description and tactile versions of the photographs were provided.
Soho Gallery, New York - established by a group of New York press photographers, this gallery hosts a wide range of events, including the recent Seeing With Photography Collective exhibition. Unfortunately the gallery has put up a lot of its information in graphical format, which is useless to blind people and search engines alike.
StillImage - a company in Bristol that aims to make the world a better place through photography, including the provision of tactile displays for blind people in public venues.
Tao of Digital Photography Blog: Learning to See from the Blind - The author claims that being a blind photographer is not so different from being a sighted one. In both cases, we're dealing with more than just recording what meets the eye.
Tessera showcases intelligent face-tracking technologies for phone cameras - features such as detection of night-time scenes, background lighting and smiling faces seem set fair to give us many automatic settings on a mobile phone.
The camera's eye - photography students at Beit Ha'iver (Center for the Blind) in Herzliya, Israel, get some stunning results.
The Colorblind Photographer - includes photographs, commentary and some tricks of the trade.
Tommaso and the Blind Photographer, a nvel by Gesualdo Bufalino - Tomasso is a janitor in a boring apartment block in Sicily. Bartolomeo, his lone companion, is a blind photographer who is paid to take pictures of the rich and famous in naked poses. They reflect on the peculiar action of the world around them. I'm not sure this is an idea for your next project!
Top marks for blind photography - blind Norwich teenager Chris Reddington gets an A in photography.
Touching art: Special Portsmouth exhibit designed for blind, low-vision people - New Hampshire Art Association hosted an exhibition in April 2009 where visitors were encouraged to touch the art.
Turn Off Autofocus - Do it Yourself! - Photography Bay | Digital Camera Reviews, News and Resources - sometimes the autofocus can let you down at the vital moment. Chris Gampert explores a technique to use without autofocus.
UK Photographers' Rights
Vision Quest Photography -photography tuition. The approach is that anyone, blind or sighted, can improve their observational skills by using photography.
Visually impaired photographers - links and comments on Metafilter.
[3] Individual Blind and VI Photographers
Alan Babbit
Alan Babbitt Fine Art Photography - abstracts, humor, street photography, quirky, Parkinsonís tremor-enhanced photography. Fine art prints for sale, images for license. Alan Babbit is legally blind and has Parkinson's Disease
Working artist: Tremor gives photographer license to be unfocused
[mp3 audio] 7 Photography Questions Podcast #46 Abstract Photography - Part 1 - Alan Babbit
Podcast Feed
Show Notes
LAS VEGAS - Un-still Photography - some of these photos were in the exhibit in Fairfax, California.
PHOTO BLEND-O - Symmetry, Synthesis, and Serendipity. Some of these photos were included in the exhibit in Fairfax, California.
Back to list of photographers
Albert Watson
Alex Dejong
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A Blind Photographer - Alex Dejong a professional photographer, lost his sight 3 years ago. Now the iPhone, with VoiceOver and editing applications, enables him to take and process his own photographs unaided.
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iPhone - a set on Flickr - Alex's iPhone collection.
RSS Feed
Alice Wingwall
Alice Wingwall is a photographer and sculptor with a passion for photographing buildings. With the aid of her husband and colleagues and auto-focus cameras, her retinitis pigmentosa has not prevented her from taking photographs.
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Alison Bartlett
Blind Snapper's Animal Magic - Alison Bartlett has hearing that's sensitive enough to track the wildlife she photographs. Story from the Sun, UK. Her photos are going into an
exhibition in Hampshire, UK.
Andrew Follows
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No sight is no barrier for Eltham photographer - Andrew Follows has very low vision because of retinitis pigmentosa, which has not stopped him mounting an exhibition this month in Melbourne, Australia.
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Blinkie Photography - Andrew's blog. "Photographer Andrew Follows Suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative ocular disease that renders me legally blind and reliant on my guide dog Eamon to move about, my world is blurred and distorted, lacking any detail. For many years I never knew what I was missing, even moderate light causes me to white-out completely. When I take a photograph I do so because in that time and place I cannot see what the camera can yet I know that image, that event will be waiting for me when I am ready and able to view it. In this way the camera becomes my eyes and my photographs my only way of experiencing a past moment from which I am otherwise excluded. Instead of wallowing in what I cannot see I become excited by what I can."
Atom Feed
RSS Feed
Annie Hesse
She wants to show people not only what she sees, but how she sees it.
Barry Wood
Blind Photographer Beats the Odds - Barry Wood has been legally blind for 3 years, and, no, he didn't want to train to be a telephonist, thanks. He has published photographs, though.
"blondezee"
Blind Eye Photography blondezee's blog. "it takes longer sometimes to get "that" shot, but it is my passion and when I do get it, sometimes I forget that I am legally blind"
Atom Feed
RSS Feed
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Bob Weinberg
Persistence Of Vision; Partially Blind Photographer Stays Focused - Bob Weinberg was a photographer for 30 years before a retinal disease struck him. But, as this article shows, he has re-learned the skills that enable him to take and develop photographs.
Bob White
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Blindness doesn't stop photographer - legally blind Bob White uses a 35mm film camera with a 300mm telephoto lens, which lets him see things better with his peripheral vision.
Brian Higgins
Brian Higgins - video, California photographer, has lost most of his vision to retinitis pigmentosa, and still is a photographer. he also teaches people to use technology. This video is in MP4 format.
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Brian Negus
Bruce Hall
He might not make a big thing about it himself, but Bruce is legally blind and takes some stunningly perceptive images.
Chris Balthrop
Camera sees what photographer cannot - Chris Balthrop can see detail in his photos he cannot see at the time they were taken.
Chris Gampert
Shooting Street as a Blind Photographer | Blind Photographers - how Chris sets about getting the shots.
Chris Gorham
Photobird.com - "goldfinch" photo in April 2009 Photo Contest
Many more references to Chris's work to come, I suspect.
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Cindy Paulding
Omigosh - a legally blind photographer takes a look at life.
A Whole New World - YouTube video on Cindy Paulding.
David Cockayne
Drew Bedo
Quiet-Light Photography -legally blind photographer Drew Bedo creates fine-art photographs using traditional films in vintage and antique large format cameras.
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Evgen Bavcar
Evgen Bavcar, Slovenian blind photographer, was the subject of a TV documentary in about 2001. The link takes you to a page with a
Quicktime movie of his exhibition. Please also refer to
Malneirophrenic Murmurings of a Neuromantic - Evgen Bavcar, blind Slovenian photographer and
Light My Life.
Frank LaVallo
Documenting downtown: Photographer sees Andover through his own lens - Frank LaVallo has been legally blind since 1977, and has been taking photos of Andover, Mass. that show the changes in the town.
Georg Gordon
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George A. Covington
This legally blind photographer and disability advocate is a pioneer of blind photography.
Gerardo Nigenda
“Tiresias fotógrafo Fotografiar sin ver” de Gerardo Nigenda
English Translation
Under the Mexican Smog: A really good interview - the author met Gerardo Nigenda as his exhibition opened in Mexico City, March, 2009.
[mp3] Radio Interview with Gerardo Nigenda from ARTSblock
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Henry Butler
New Orleans jazz pianist and blind photographer.
Holleen Lawrence
Holleen Lawrence and Becca Hodges are a mother daughter team who take mainly photos of people. Holleen is blind.
Ingrid Damiani
Local photographer captures experiences, moments at Cummer Museum - the museum, in Jacksonville, Florida, has hosted several community events, including 'Women of Vision', featuring blind women photographers.
"InsightDiscover"
InsightDiscover's Myspace Page - photographers with visual impairments. Also visit her
YouTube Video Playlist
Jason de Camillis
Flickr: jason.decamillis' Photostream on Flickr
Jason Michael DeCamillis at Blind Photographers
John Dugdale and Flo Fox
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Julieann Nordstrom/'Juicy'
Julieann Nordstrom Photography - photographer, also known as Juicy, whose life experiences include glaucoma. More on Julieanne at
Windows Live
RSS Feed
and
Gaia Community
Ken Keen
Ken, based in Bucks, S. England, uses mechanical cameras and mechanical techniques to judge what is going to be in his photographs.
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Kerry Pringle
Blind Sided Studio & Gallery blog by a professional photographer who lost an eye in an accident.
Atom Feed
RSS Feed. There is a
social network on ning.com.
Kurt Weston
After diagnoses of full-blown AIDS and CMV Retinitis, Kurt's life as a fashion photographer, and life itself, seemed to be over.
But new drug therapies saved his life, and he wasn't done yet as a photographer either......
Lloyd Gregory
Photography by a blind old man - Lloyd Gregory explains how he carries on with photography while managing the difficulties of macular degeneration.
Lorraine Boogich
The loss of an eye has not stopped Lorraine being a commercial and articstic photographer.
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Michael Richard
Photographer Found Abstract Forms in Urban Locales - a tribute to Michael Richard, rock musician and photographer, who was legally blind in later life.
Michael Walsh
Visual Inspiration - Michael Walsh, legally blind photographer in Avon, MA, USA, had an exhibition in the local library in March, 2008. Every picture tells a story.
Nicholas Birchak
Nicholas has always been legally blind, and once he became intrigued by photography, he decided to offer the world a blind perspective on things that sighted people may overlook.
A Blind Perspective Nicholas Birchak's own site, "where the sighted world can see what they are missing"
Nicole Slaughter
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Norman Taylor
Belfast-born Mr Taylor has taken over 1000 images of his garden shed with a digital camera. An exhibition of some of them is appearing at the RNIB in Edinburgh.
Otto Lizel
Otto Lizel, a photographer who went blind, and has been an inspiration to other blind photographers. His legacy is several long-lived books, including
Photo Composition.
Patricia Youngquist
Patricia Youngquist - Impressionist Pinhole Photographer - she is legally blind. She photographs things the way she sees them through a camera she built herself. Patricia does not try to replicate 'sighted' photography.
Pedro Hidalgo
Humor & Art: Blind Photographer Building Career Off Laughs - a feature on blind Oakland photographer Pedro Hidalgo.
Pete Eckert
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Ralph Baker
Ralph Baker, (refusing to be) Blind Photographer - New York street photographer has developed severe retinal problems, but that doesn't stop him earning a living.
Remigijus Audiejaitis, Vilnius, Lithuania
Blind Photographer Has No Difficulty - he chooses what to photograph by sound.
Richard Favinger, Jr.
Richard Favinger, Jr. has
nystagmus (involuntary movements of the eyes), and is legally blind. He is also a black belt in judo and teaches judo at the
The Pottstown Judo Club, Pottstown, Pa
Robert Wright
wright images is the website of
Robert Wright, who is legally blind and does publicity work in the field of technology addressing the barriers that disabled people face.
Romy Ocon
Color-blind lensman shares wonders of the wild - Romy Ocon has a life-long colour deficiency, but tells of how he gets it right when taking photographs. From Luzon Inquirer, Philippines.
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Rosita McKenzie
Selman Devecioğlu
Visually impaired photographer works to open exhibit - Selman Devecioğlu hoped to display his photos for Disability Week in May 2007 in Turkey.
Sam Smith
Sam Smith Art photos concentrate on escaping the humdrum world, and humour. He is visually impaired. He has a mobile exhibition in Southern California.
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Sandra Miller
Portland, Oregon based legally blind photographer and versatile artist, she presents rich imagery on these sites.
The launching pad into the world of Sandra Miller Portland Oregon Glass artisan and photographer
Graffiti Gallery - Portfolio by photographer Sandra Miller ..... Inspired by Life!
Shéri Vitolo
Shéri has Usher's Syndrome, which affects hearing and brings retinitis pigmentosa as well. Photography is just one of her many talents, and she describes Usher's Syndrome as an awareness.
For Pacifican Shéri Vitolo, the word 'limit' just opens a new door
Simon Kirkman
Blind Man Walking - Simon has macular degeneration at age 37, and has decided to make the most of his photography
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Steven Erra
Sue Mcleod
Blind photographer takes aim at life - Sue McLeod is a blind photographer in Sydney Australia. This article looks at her work, the Local Eyes Project and an exhibition in March 2008.
Local Eyes Sydney Web Site - may not be very accessible to everyone.
Susan Povinelli
Focusing on the Picture - how would Susan Povinelli be able to conduct a photography class when she's blind? She lets us in on the secrets.
Terry Hammon
Terry Hammon, uses a manually-focused Minolta camera. She has learned to be sharply observant by concentrating on detail.
Tim Doucette
Having had his lenses removed, Tim Doucette is visually impaired, but can see further into the ultra-violet than most of us. He is a nationally recognised space photographer in Canada.
Tim O'Brien
Tim O'Brien Photos - Tim is a legally blind photographer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who gets the camera to see for him what he can't see for himself. Tim's photos have been widely published, and prints are available from the web site Blog, previously known as Oberazzi, included.
Atom Feed
RSS Feed
Braving the Sight Unseen - Interview with Blind Photographer Timothy O’Brien
blindphotogs - Tim's Twitter page
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Traci Parks
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A Critical Eye - Legally blind photographer captures challenges to handicapped - Traci Parks uses her architectural training to document problems in the built environment that beset disabled people
- She runs her own company, Miracle Images
- She has an exhibition called "What's wrong with this picture?"
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Unique Perspective, is like a career-cast by Traci herself
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Blind Photographer Learns to Live Her Dream.
Yoshiko Murakani
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[4] Images for All
In this section are some of the tools and techniques you might use to capture images, and, above all, to represent finished images. While some people with failing sight might simply see their images adequately on a large monitor, there are many who will want to go further and experiment with turning images into sound or tactile media.
Art Speaking - live audio description of artworks at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in the UK West Midlands, with participating galleries in Walsall, Coventry and Leamington Spa.
YouTube Video
As far as the heart can see | Manila Bulletin - multi-sensory installations featured in Manila Design Week 2009.
Blind Photographers Use Gadgets to Realize Artistic Vision « LVATUG blog has more on this story and the Blind Photographers Flickr Group.
Access to Photography: Making Photography Accessible to Persons with Exceptional Educational Needs - many resources to make photography accessible to those with a variety of disabilities. Materials include adaptive devices and links to academic papers. This item was put together in the 1980s, and may be available through libraries.
Accessible Image a mailing list on freelists to discuss many forms of graphical images accessible to blind people, including photography.
Accessibility Features of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) a note from w3.org.
AEB's Guidelines for Verbal Description- Making Visual Art Accessible To People Who are Blind And Visually Impaired
APH Tactile Graphic Image Library - images that can be copied or adapted for personal or educational use. 6 month free membership available.
BBC News | Photo exhibition for the blind - "Touch and see" in Kiev, Ukraine, presents photos with textured tactile versions and audio descriptions. With embedded video and commentary.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Reading 'to go' for blind people - the portable K-NFB reader, an obvious example of a camera enabling blind people to see.
BrainPort Vision Device - a device for converting images to champagne bubbles on your tongue!
[PDF] CANADIAN BRAILLE AUTHORITY REPORT OF TACTILE GRAPHICS SUB-COMMITTEE, Part 3 on the readability of tactile graphics.
Converting Images Into Sounds for the Blind refers to some
Cornell University software intended to convert colours on maps into sound.
Creating Tactile Graphics using Corel Draw
Daniel Kish using and explaining Echolocation - this video shows that Dan's ability to use sonar like a bat enables him to go mountan biking, so it could be useful for photographers too? Another video is
Echo vision: The man who sees with sound
Even a colorblind person can color-correct a photo - Chris Nicholson explains how you can use
RGB values for colour correction even if, like him, you're red-green blind.
Exhibition to target blind visitors - "A Different View", which includes tactile, sound and Braille items to help blind people enjoy the Lake District of England, runs from May 5th to May 21st at Bowness Bay Information Centre.
Giving the blind a look-in - the Samsung Touch Sight Camera has tactile and audio features. Not only does the tactile display give the photographer a touchable image , but the camera also records 3 seconds of sound when the shot is taken. This camera made it to number 50 in
Time Magazine's Best 50 Inventions of the Year, 2008.
Another article on this camera.
[PDF] Guide to Designing Tactile Graphics for Children's Books from American Printing House for the Blind
Hands-On Book of Hubble Images Allows the Visually Impaired to "Touch the Universe" - NASA has released a book entitled "Touch the Universe" by Noreen Grice, which has tactile and coloured images of many space objects.
Book details
Video profile of Noreern Grice, where she explains how this passion came about.
Readers comments from the NASA site. Readers who ordered this book were also interested in
Touch the Sun by the same author.
Handy tools for the colorblind: white balance references - this article from the Colorblind Photographer blog advises on getting the colour balance right even if you don't understand all the technicalities.
HoodLoupe 3.0-Hoodman Corporation - a magnifier and anti-glare device for camera LCD screens.
Making Tactile Graphics -
RNIB guide.
MIT develops camera for the blind - this is a rather vague story about a 'seeing machine' developed by Elizabeth Goldring at MIT. What the device can do exactly, where you can get one, and who it would help aren't at all clear.
Museo Nazionale Alinari Della Fotografia in Florence, Italy, caters for blind and other disabled people.
New Technique Helps Blind to see the EyePlusPlus Forehead Sensory Recognition System (FSRS) sends electrical impulses from a video camera worn as a pair of sunglasses to a headband worn by the wearer. This is emerging technology, at first tried in the Nordic countries.
On Disabilities in the Arts - the frustrations of trying to provide arts opportunities for disabled people at a museum. The article focuses primarily on blind and partially sighted people.
PictureBraille "provides an easy solution for the production of tactile graphics on a Braille embosser. Printed images can be scanned from an existing print source, imported from common Windows graphic file formats, such as bitmap, gif and jpeg, or pasted from any drawing program."
Quantum Technology serving the needs of people with print disabilities. Internationally available products include
the Mountbatten Brailler,
the Jot a Dot portable Brailler and
the PIAF tactile image maker, which uses swell paper. The site lists international dealers.
Seeing with Sound - The vOICe - free software that converts graphics into sound.
The vOICe Learning Edition for PC is enough to test the idea. There are other editions that work with mobile camera phones. The middle three letters represent 'Oh, I see', hence the strange capitalisation.
Software for the colorblind: HueVue for the iPhone | The Colorblind Photographer - this app can simulate colour blindness, perform colour matching and identification.
HueVue web site
Sound imaging: clever acoustics help blind people see the world - the CASBliP Project is working on a navigation device that can turn images from two cameras (with field depth) into a realistic sound representation of what is in front of a blind person.
More about the CASBliP Project
Tactile Graphics: an Overview and Resource Guide
Tactile Graphics Website - basic information on tactile graphics production, hardware and software, training and conference notices.
Tactile Photography - the "Senses" Project in Boston,
Ma, created by Venezuelan artist Mariliana Arvelo to produce tactile images used by blind, sighted and deaf-blind people.
This second article shows some of the images and describes how they were made.
TactileGraphics.org: Lucia Hasty Invites You to Learn Tactile Graphics
Talking Tactile Tablet T3 from Royal National College for the Blind - a touch sensitive, multi sensory device which provides instant audio feedback from tactile images.
The Tactile Library - this free site, set up by
Zychem, Ltd., includes many tactile images loosely based on the UK National Curriculum, but applicable elsewhere.
Topographical maps and student who is blind - Barry Kleider shares his experience of producing tactile images at Minnesota State Academy for the Blind, Faribault.
Unique Clonmel expo makes art more accessible to all - South Tipperary County Museum is hosting "Altered Images", an exhibition made accessible to people with disabilities. The show goes on until August 5th, 2009.
Wikipedia Haptics Page - haptics has to do with the sense of touch, and there are various technologies emerging that use the sense of touch.
Zychem Ltd - swell paper, tactile diagram fusers and tactile learning aids for visually impaired people, including the Talking Tactile Tablet.
