It’s usually taken for granted that vision is a crucial factor in a photographer’s ability to compose and create a photograph. Israeli photographers Kfir Sivan and Iris Darel-Shinar and their workshop that taught nine blind people how to take pictures may prove that notion wrong.
Their “Blind Photographer” workshop taught their students a brief history of photography, the basics of operating a camera, and various photographic techniques and the results are surprising. While some of the shots suffer from some of the expected technical deficiencies like errant focus or exposure, a number of the photos have a compelling purity to them.
One of the more interesting aspects of the project is that that the students were taught how to use other sensory input to be able to guide their photographic efforts. Sounds and smells might point them in the direction of their chosen subjects and the temperature of the sun might suggest to them the brightness and what kind of exposure they might need to use. Perhaps clues like these could be useful to other photographers who aren’t impaired by a lack of vision and teach us to hone our sights on more than just what comes into our field of view.
It could be fun to spend an afternoon with a camera and a blindfold to see if other senses can guide your photography.