Blind Photography...

Since my sister has become blind I have been trying to educate myself as much as possible on blindness/visual impairment. I've come across a lot of interesting and helpful information via the internet. One website that has really caught my attention is www.blindphotographers.org. This website displays images made by blind and visually impaired individuals. The photos are absolutely amazing. I told Robin about it and she was excited; she decided that photography was going to be her new hobby. My daughter Imani was her first subject. She told Imani to talk to her so she could follow the sound of her voice. The first couple of photos Imani's head was cut off, but she keep taking pictures and listening to the sound of Imani's voice and could tell what Imani was doing by her tone. She finally nailed it and got a good shot of Imani smiling and saved it as her screen saver on her phone. Robin's been exploring photography through sound and it is quite intriguing to see her interpretation of what she hears. It's amazing how close what I see visually is to what she hears. I was able to look at what she produced and describe it to her, but since she couldn't see it for herself I wondered what did she get out of photography. She said that it was gratification to know that she could still do something that she loved to do when she was sighted. Although it's now a little different than when she was sighted; instead of relying on sight she relies on touch, sound and smell, it's still something she enjoys. There's one photo that really stuck with me from the Blind Photographers website; it's a picture of gray bricks and in the middle of them a patch of green foliage growing with the word ADAPT above and the quote by Teddy Roosevelt "Do what you can, where you are, with what you have." That was so profound. Robin has definitely taken such an abrupt change in her life and has adapted. Through this journey together we are both learning that everything is possible as long as you put forth your best effort and believe in yourself.