The Seeing with Photography Collective is a group of photographers based in New York City who are visually impaired, sighted and totally blind. I'm a sight impaired member of this group of artists. Coming from diverse backgrounds and life experiences, we share an awareness of sight loss, along with the determination to dialogue and integrate our images into a more universal context. Sighted assistants, or members, focus and compose the view frame directed by the blind artist. Then, in a darkened room, we leave the camera's shutter open as we slowly paint our sitter with a small flashlight ...human scaled exposures, lasting many minutes, rather than the instant shutter click we typically hear. Our luminous distortions, blurred or glowing forms result from the technique, not digital altering.When I first saw the first few pictures we made back in 1997, I was, frankly, just amazed. The better ones pulled away the thin skin of the expected mimicry of sighted imagery. The image's power and presence derive from the opposite of that. Our flashlights illuminate frenzied, gentle, harsh and delicate realities, while revealing more than any one simple theme or issue. Those visual realities are, I think, tied to how we experience life. The light paintings seem to resonate, similar to us in our own graspings, the long time exposures more tangible. Images to step into, and spend a few minutes with.

My focus in life had been painting, I have a Degree in Fine Art from the Parsons School of Design. I' ve learned so much, dreamed so much, and created so much with my fellow blind -sight impaired photographers. I needed to learn strength and determination and I did. Its more an inner sort of light than the biology of eyesight's light. A new way of "seeing"seems to have been born, a new genre even, as more and more non sighted  individuals are chiseling away at new terrain in the visually savy art world. 
Our images are becoming more widely known, and generating curiosity and questions and the nature of our visual limitations can provoke any viewer or perceiver of these portraits...Is less, more? What is seeing?

People want to understand the creative dynamics involved with blind photography, maybe some of my images here might illuminate aspects of this, but I'm just one artist among many in Seeing With Photography - many artists, many voices, styles and themes. Explore further at SWPC's website

A small selection of my own work is here. Sometimes I was assisted by others taking direction about the lighting from me, as well as being focused by others with viable sight, but always framed and aligned to my artistic concept.

Sight has this established and presumed role in photography, and nudging this cozy niche raises eyebrows. I am honored to be a part of Seeing With Photography. I am so proud of our wrestling matches with definition.