How the Blind Can Experience Photography

I recently received an e-mail from the NH Art Association, promoting an upcoming "Art Beyond Vision" exhibit. The e-mail talked about the textured paintings, fiber arts pieces, sculptures, etc. which would be on display. Conspicuously missing was photography, for what most people would consider to be obvious reasons. This made me wonder how/whether a blind person could experience photography (including mine).

While there are several web sites on "blind photography," they all tend to focus on how the blind can create photographs and how the "just give them some equipment and unleash them" procedure stretches our preconceptions about the artistic process. (Especially as a sighted person would likely have to curate the resultant prints and determine whether they were any "good.") However, there was very little information online as to how a blind person may be able to experience a photographic print taken by themselves or someone else.

However, I was then lucky enough to stumble upon Italy's Alinari National Museum of Photography, which hosts a special installation of relief interpretations of photographs to allow the blind to ‘see’ 20 selected artworks with their fingertips. The tactile images are displayed along with the corresponding originals, so that both sighted and unsighted people can experience these photographic works. This means that while the blind can touch the images, the sighted can also think about how the blind ‘see’ the images.

The original prints were turned into 3-d art with the help of an Italian print house specializing in Braille.

To learn more, click here and here.

Here's to hoping the technology becomes so mainstream and affordable that any photographer can create simultaneous two- and three-dimensional works.

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