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13

Dec

The Creative Process of Blind Photographers

by Meredith Mullins on December 13, 2012

Sea limpet, photographed by a blind photographer using a creative process to see differently

Intensified Seeing: A Sea Limpet
© Bruce Hall. All Rights Reserved.

Seeing Differently: Artistry From Within

Seeing is about much more than sight.

Can we sense sound without the ability to hear? Can we taste without eating? Can we feel without touching? Can we see without sight?

The answer—a definitive yes—requires unleashing the power of our senses, especially  in the creative process.

The Power of the Senses

According to Scientific American, there is evidence to suggest that, if we live without one sense, “the brain rewires itself to boost the remaining senses.”

That is exactly the process of the many sight-impaired photographers who are working today—artists who use sound, touch, memory, and other sensations to “compose” their images and sense the timing of their subjects.

These artists believe that the image comes from within, not from the “outside.” And they prove that, often, a blind person can have a very clear vision.

Fortune teller, photographed by a blind photographer using a creative process to see differently.

Fortune Teller
© Pete Eckert. All Rights Reserved.

Blind Photographers as Visionaries

From among the many  (see the Blind Photographers Guild and several Flickr sites for the range of the community), two contemporary photographers, Bruce Hall and Pete Eckert, have proven themselves to be exceptional visionaries.

Their creative process and their images provide a transformative OIC Moment—seeing is about much more than sight.

Child playing in pool, photographed by a blind photographer using a creative process to see differently.

James Loves the Water, or Does He?
© Bruce Hall. All Rights Reserved.

Bruce Hall: Intensified Seeing

As a child with limited vision, Bruce Hall changed his life one day when he looked through a telescope and saw something he had never been able to see before: a star.

This startling moment led to an obsession with cameras, lenses, magnifiers, large computer screens, and other optical devices. These tools all assist him in his vision— “intensified seeing,” as he calls it.

“I think all photographers take pictures in order to see,” he says. “But for me it’s a necessity. It’s beyond being in love with cameras. I can’t see without a camera.”

Hall describes his creative process: “First I see an impression. I take what I think I see, later I can see what I saw. I have certain aims, guesses, impressions, but the photographs are always a surprise.”

His current love is underwater work, where he can use his macro lens to get close to the beauty of the deep—both plant and animal life. He also is working on a project with his autistic twin sons.

Light-painted figure, photographed by a blind photographer using a creative process to see differently.

Painting with Light
© Pete Eckert. All Rights Reserved.

Pete Eckert: A Visual Person

For Pete Eckert, the story was different. He was sighted and then lost his sight as the result of a degenerative eye disease. He had time to prepare for the inevitable and explored ways he could pursue his artistic interests. He chose photography.

Now, he is accompanied by his guide dog, Uzu, and searches for moments through his other senses . . . and memory.

“I see each shot very clearly. You have to hear where the movement is and react intuitively. I’m a very visual person. I just can’t see.”

In his creative process, Eckert uses a slow shutter speed and “light painting.” When he senses the subject’s position and movement, he adds moving light—aiming flashlights, lasers, lighters, and candles toward the subject.

Once Eckert has processed the images, he involves a sighted person to help him select the images that will become large prints for galleries. “I slip photos under the door from the world of the blind to be viewed in the light of the sighted,” he says. “Talking with people in galleries builds a bridge between my mind’s eye and their vision of my work.”

His advice for aspiring photographers who are having trouble with subject selection or composition: “If you can’t see, it’s because your vision is getting in the way.”

Portrait of Stephanie, a motorcycle rider, photographed by a blind photographer using a creative process to see differently.

Stephanie
© Pete Eckert. All Rights Reserved.

The Creative Process: Outside In and Inside Out

These experiences just confirm what we have always known. The creative process is a rich experience that is fed by exploration within and without.

The work of Bruce Hall and Pete Eckert is imaginative and experimental, and very definitely comes from within. And, yes, they do also happen to be sight-impaired. However, both want their art to be seen for itself, not because it’s made by a blind person.

Thank you, Bruce and Pete, for the inspiration.

Stay tuned for our February 2013 photography competition “Blind Sight.” You’ll be asked to close your eyes or blindfold yourself and make a photograph using the power of your imagination and your other senses.

UPDATE: The OIC Moments “Blind Sight” Photography Contest has been concluded and you can view the winners, as well as download the free ebook created from contest entries, here:

 

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

The World's Photography

29

Nov

A Cultural Encounter with Violence: Sicarios

by Meredith Mullins on November 29, 2012

International Fine Art Photography Winner
Unmasks Violence in Guatemala

The photograph that just won the Grand Prize in the 2012 International Fine Art Photography Competition is powerful, lyrical, rich in tones, and graceful in line.

As you look closer, a story begins to unfold. When fully understood, the image sends a spine-chilling message about the pervasiveness of violence in the world today and how easily it has come to be accepted as a part of daily life in certain cultures.

In so many countries, guns and killing are woven into the cultural fabric. Poverty, abundance of weapons, a legacy of violence, corrupt or dysfunctional law enforcement, war, revolution, drugs, gangs, and a reverence for the power of violence all contribute.

The Culture of Guatemalan Hit Men

Spanish photographer Javier Arcenillas titles his award-winning work “Red Note” after the police report issued daily in Guatemala that lists the violent crimes that have occurred. Arcenillas follows the trail of these alerts in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico—to tell the story of this growing violence.

The image is a part of his series called Sicarios—an even more chilling story of a culture of “hit men” or hired killers in Latin America.

The job of a sicario is one of the most popular and respected professions in these countries. Young people are seduced by the easy money and the instant respect. Sicarios are strong . . . and feared.

“When they hold their first gun, their childhood disappears, and their games become adult games. Their playground is the street, ” Arcenillas says. “But they rarely make it past 25 years old.”

The sicarios are usually from the poorer strata of society. Young killers train by shooting pets and learning to eliminate any feeling of guilt. They graduate by killing the homeless. Then, they’re ready to be full-fledged assassins.

The Real Story in Images

“These problems of violence cannot be solved with a camera,” Arcenillas says. “I can’t save the world with photographs. But I can aspire to heal it. My role is to tell a story in images . . . a real story. The truth.”

Too often, a culture accepts and glorifies violence (films, TV, video games, street-level struggles for power, or legal pleas of “self-defense” and “standing one’s ground”). The stage has been set. But the real-life dramas that play out every day are reaching catastrophic proportions in many countries.

Arcenillas’s photographs are troubling, moving, and deserving of our full attention. As he says:

“Let the sentence of the day be, ‘For once in my life, I need to listen.’ Indifference is the world’s evil.”

His photos reveal a haunting Oh, I see moment, as we come face-to-face with everyday violence. The images, hopefully, serve as a call to action.

How do we keep eight-year olds from wanting to be corner-boy drug runners or sicarios?

How do we keep kids from wanting to do just what their older brothers are doing?

How do we make sure a country such as Guatemala prosecutes more than 5% of its violent crime cases . . . or even just reports the crimes that are committed?

How do we implant a conscience in a culture . . . a conscience that makes it wrong to kill someone or to remain silent when someone is killed?

These are life-threatening, life-changing questions that need answers. Soon.

 Learn more about Guatemala. 

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Cultural Encounters/Guatemala/The World's Photography

25

Oct

Space Explorations Push Our Frontiers

by Meredith Mullins on October 25, 2012

Blue Angel with vapor cloud occurring right before breaking the sound barrier, illustrating photographic space explorations

Vapor cloud forming behind a Blue Angel as it breaks the sound barrier
© Heather Rainbow

Don’t Give Up the Dream of Discovery

Space has been on my mind lately (outer space, that is).

First, there was the farewell to the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Next, Felix Baumgartner made a freefall from space.

And then Heather Rainbow’s lens captured a Blue Angel at the point of breaking the sound barrier.

All of these space explorations inspire me to keep the dream of discovery alive.

Farewell to Endeavour

Thousands of people crowded the streets of Los Angeles to catch a glimpse of the slow rolling parade and to pay tribute as the Endeavour was retired to the California Science Center.

  • The lumbering spacecraft, an icon of America’s space explorations, rumbled past fast food drive-ins, car washes, and project housing.
  • Trees and phone lines had to be cleared so it could travel the 12 miles (three days!) to its final resting place.
  • “Shuttle Crossing” signs were planted along the streets.

The journey was surreal—a spacecraft that had explored the great frontiers now looked more like a character in a slow motion O.J. Simpson car chase.

But it was an Oh I see moment, nonetheless. This craft took humans out into the universe, time and time again. You could almost hear John F. Kennedy’s voice: we choose to go to the moon “not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” We (America) had a dream, and our dream came true.

To relive the farewell parade of the Endeavour, go to Matthew Givot’s amazing time lapse video.

If the video does not display, watch it here.

Freefall from Space

Next, there was the record-breaking freefall of Felix Baumgartner from the edge of space.  For Felix, his “one giant step” from the stratosphere was the Oh, I see moment of a lifetime.

  • He stepped into a nine-minute journey to earth, traveled 128,100 feet, and is the first human to have broken the sound barrier . . . without a plane.
  • He fell at nearly 833 mph (the typical skydiver falls at 120 mph).
  • In the end, he knew he was just a tiny piece of a much larger puzzle. “When you are standing at the top of the world, you become so humble. It’s not about breaking records anymore.”

 

The Right Moment in Time (and Space)

Sometimes, the space frontiers come knocking (or sonic booming) at our own backdoor, and we can have an Oh, I see moment away from the media headlines. For photographer Heather Rainbow, that moment came during the Blue Angels performance over San Francisco and she captured it in an instant.

How ready do you have to be to catch that moment when an aircraft is about to break the sound barrier—when the pressure around the plane forms a vapor cloud in anticipation of the sonic boom? You just click the shutter and hope that “the force is with you.”

All these events make me say OIC in awe. Can you see sound? Can you hear the silence of outer space? Can you touch history? Can you still marvel at the wonders of the universe with all your senses?

Yes! Let the dream of discovery live on.

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

 

Discoveries/The World's Photography

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