BLIND WITH CAMERA

WIDE EYE OPEN - exhibition of photographs by the visually impiared

Duration: Duration of the exhibition can be for a day or for a month or more

Description: Blind With Camera has a collection of pictures taken by people with visual impairement ranging from born / complete blind to partially sighted. It is exhibition ready for showcasing around the world. Collection has over 150 photographs for display including 20 photographs in accessable formats.

Pictures taken “by” the visually impaired have to be "for" the visually impaired. Keeping this in mind, we design inclusive and multi-sensory exhibitions for pictures from the Blind With Camera, for both visually impaired and sighted visitors. The exhibitions thoughtfully incorporated combination of adaptive ways, such as touch & feel raised pictures, Braille and audio description, to provide a holistic experience to the visually impaired readers. It offers a whole new experience for the sighted readers as well. This inclusiveness of photographs redefines the common notion “to see is to photograph, and to photograph is to see”.

Extra information: Since 2007, collection of Blind With Camera is curated and designed for "inclusive" photo exhibitions at -

1.Piramal Gallery, NCPA (Mumbai) 2007
2.Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath (Bangalore) 2007
3.India Habitat Centre (New Delhi) 2007
4.Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (Mumbai) 2008 and 2010
5.Academy of Fine Arts (Kolkata) 2009
6.Alliance Franciaise (Mumbai & New Delhi) 2010 and 2012
7.Kala Academy (Panjim Goa) 2010
8.DaDa International Disability Art Festival (Liverpool, UK) 2010
9.Nehru Centre / Indian High Commission (London) 2010
10.Gallery Art & Soul (Mumbai) 2011
11.Harrington Street Arts Centre (Kolkata) 2012
12.Royal Holloway, University of London (UK) 2015
13.British Council (New Delhi) 2016
14.Standard Chartered Bank (Mumbai) 2016
15.Galerie Huit in Arles (France) 2016
16.Times Literature Festival (Mumbai) 2017

Along with exhibitions, sensory blindfold photography trails workshops for sighted was conducted at -

1.HVB School (IB board), Mumbai
2.Gold Crest High School, Latur Maharashtra
3.DaDa International Disability Art Festival, Liverpool UK
4.Edelweiss Group, Mumbai
5.Child Rights & You (CRY), Mumbai
6.Harrington Street Arts Centre, Kolkata
7.Art & Soul Gallery, Mumbai
8.SP Jain Management Institute, Mumbai
9.Dialogue in the Dark, Singapore
10.Commonwealth Association of Museums, City Place Jaipur
11.Standard Chartered Bank, Mumbai
12.LuxDrive, Mercedes- Benz India
13.Artists for a Better World, SIF Singapore & Malaysia
14.Time Literature Festival Mumbai

Freight: necessary

Freight details: Freight would depend location and scale of the exhibition

The inner vision of blind photographers, their creative insight and their voice is documented in two books titled SEE AS NO OTHER and IN TOUCH WITH PICTURES. Both books are conceptualised, complied and written by Partho Bhowmick, the founder of Blind With Camera / Beyond Sight Foundation

SEE AS NO OTHER is a collection of over 100 photographs from the Blind With Camera and some of the more accomplished blind photographers in the world. The book provide compelling insights into the creative process; how another sense “fills in” for sight lost and how the camera serves as the new “eye” of the visually impaired. The book celebrates human diversity, gives a new voice to the visually impaired, and explores what sight and seeing is really all about. The Foreword of the book is written by American photographer Douglas McCulloh and curator of Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists at the California Museum of Photography, University of California Riverside in 2009. The Afterword is written by Dr. Simon Hayhoe, UK based researcher, writer and known internationally for his work on blindness, art and society. The book is published by Partridge Publishing India, a Penguin Random House Company.

This title is available worldwide in print, e-book on Amazon. Audio accessible DAISY format is avaiable on request to visually impaired readers from the Beyond Sight Foundation and Bookshare (online library of accessable books).

IN TOUCH WITH PICTURES is an unique coffee table sensory photo book. It offers a combination of touch & feel pictures, Audio Description, Braille and Large prints for the visually impaired readers. It offers a whole new experience to the sighted readers to SEE-TOUCH-HEAR pictures. The inclusiveness of photographs in the book redefines the common notion “to see is to photograph, and to photograph is to see”. The book is published by the Beyond Sight Foundation.

This title is available worldwide on Amazon and on request from the Beyond Sight Foundation.

Blind With Camera is extensively covered by the Press in India and abroad. To know about the Press coverage, visit www.blindwithcamera.org/press-room

“Blind with Camera project endorses from another angle the trueness of “Nothing is impossible”. To follow a vision, no eyesight is needed. People are really “blind”, if they lack of imagination and they do not have the guts to go beyond their limits. Blind with Camera breaks with boundaries, mental concepts and shows on a high artistic altitude, that beauty is invisible and that there are miraculous ways to visualize the unseen. And again blind people open the eyes of people with eyesight, and demonstrate very powerfully how to build bridges for an inclusive world. I am sure the book “See As No Other” will inspire lots of people across the world to think, act and feel different.”- Andreas Heinecke, Founder of Dialogue in the Dark, Germany
“Photography by the blind? Of course! In the 4 corners of the world, ice age art reveals that homo sapiens loves images. Photos show the surfaces of the tangible world, and the same surfaces make the visible world. Perspectives in the pictures tell us we are inside buildings, on the stairs or beside a gate. These are perspectives that touch shares with vision.Imaginative images tell stories.On a hot day, shadows are cool. We discover what things mean through many senses. SEE AS NO OTHER shows art appeals to the eye, the hand and the heart.” – John Miller Kennedy, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto and author of award-winning book “Drawing and the Blind”
“Re-envision what we assume: My inquiry in partnership with hundreds of blind and sighted people asked us to question the ‘Critics’ who ‘delight to tell us what we cannot do.’ With this important book, Partho Bhowmick and his community of blind photographers, ask the whole world to search our aesthetic and visceral compass, and ask ourselves who has the right to talk about beauty, the skies, mountains, the song of birds, and colors.” –Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Founder & President, Art Beyond Sight, New York
“All of us see the world through various filters of choice; we glance, we stare, we judge, reflect and so on. This book has the impact and power to arrest our ability to truly understand what it means to see; not just through culturally diverse aspects, but though exploring variations with vision. In doing so, it changes our understanding.” – Ruth Gould, CEO & Artistic Director, DaDa Disability Arts Fest, Liverpool UK
“An inspiring journey to rethink and discover, together with blind people, and through the use of photography, what vision is about. Vision is not passive. With or without feedback on the final result there is always the act of seeing, selecting and composing the view while interacting with people and objects in the view. A road to awareness and independence.” – Dr. Peter Meijer, Dutch scientist & inventor of “Seeing With Sound” technology
“For those of us who are sighted, our vision often blinds us.   SEE AS NO OTHER achieves something remarkable and important, it makes us look differently.  It opens our eyes.  It invites us to question what it really means to see.  It engages us in an unfolding and profound conversation that brings new understanding about the myriad ways in which humans visualize the world.” – Tiffany Fairey, Co-founder, PhotoVoice, London
“In our Era of Images—that of the End of Night—blind photographers play a transcendent role: they inject invisibility back into the arrogant grip of vision and its technical prostheses. Nothingness. Dignity. The very chance for renewal. Darkness is lovers’ refuge, and light is lifeless without imagination. No eye lacks a blind spot, and sightlessness is never without a gaze. SEE AS NO OTHERS offer us more than a glimpse, a valuable contribution to the growing international movement of blind photography.” – Benjamin Mayer-Foulkes, Founding Director, 17, Institute of Critical Studies, Mexico City

“BLIND WITH CAMERA endorses from another angle the trueness of “Nothing is impossible”. To follow a vision, no eyesight is needed. People are really “blind”, if they lack of imagination and they do not have the guts to go beyond their limits. Blind with Camera breaks with boundaries, mental concepts and shows on a high artistic altitude, that beauty is invisible and that there are miraculous ways to visualize the unseen. And again blind people open the eyes of people with eyesight, and demonstrate very powerfully how to build bridges for an inclusive world.”– Andreas Heinecke, Founder of Dialogue in the Dark, Germany

“Photography by the blind? Of course! In the 4 corners of the world, ice age art reveals that homo sapiens loves images. Photos show the surfaces of the tangible world, and the same surfaces make the visible world. Perspectives in the pictures tell us we are inside buildings, on the stairs or beside a gate. These are perspectives that touch shares with vision.Imaginative images tell stories.On a hot day, shadows are cool. We discover what things mean through many senses. Blind With Camera shows art appeals to the eye, the hand and the heart.” – John Miller Kennedy, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto and author of award-winning book “Drawing and the Blind”

“Re-envision what we assume: My inquiry in partnership with hundreds of blind and sighted people asked us to question the ‘Critics’ who ‘delight to tell us what we cannot do.’ With this important book, Partho Bhowmick and his community of blind photographers, ask the whole world to search our aesthetic and visceral compass, and ask ourselves who has the right to talk about beauty, the skies, mountains, the song of birds, and colors.” – Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Founder & President, Art Beyond Sight, New York

“All of us see the world through various filters of choice; we glance, we stare, we judge, reflect and so on. This book has the impact and power to arrest our ability to truly understand what it means to see; not just through culturally diverse aspects, but though exploring variations with vision. In doing so, it changes our understanding.” – Ruth Gould, CEO & Artistic Director, DaDa Disability Arts Fest, Liverpool UK

“An inspiring journey to rethink and discover, together with blind people, and through the use of photography, what vision is about. Vision is not passive. With or without feedback on the final result there is always the act of seeing, selecting and composing the view while interacting with people and objects in the view. A road to awareness and independence.” – Dr. Peter Meijer, Dutch scientist & inventor of “Seeing With Sound” technology

“For those of us who are sighted, our vision often blinds us.  BLIND WITH CAMERA achieves something remarkable and important, it makes us look differently.  It opens our eyes.  It invites us to question what it really means to see.  It engages us in an unfolding and profound conversation that brings new understanding about the myriad ways in which humans visualize the world.” – Tiffany Fairey, Co-founder, PhotoVoice, London

“In our Era of Images—that of the End of Night—blind photographers play a transcendent role: they inject invisibility back into the arrogant grip of vision and its technical prostheses. Nothingness. Dignity. The very chance for renewal. Darkness is lovers’ refuge, and light is lifeless without imagination. No eye lacks a blind spot, and sightlessness is never without a gaze. BLIND WITH CAMERA offer us more than a glimpse, a valuable contribution to the growing international movement of blind photography.” – Benjamin Mayer-Foulkes, Founding Director, 17, Institute of Critical Studies, Mexico City