For some of us, light, its qualities of softness, hardness, reflectiveness, shadow ~ these are only memories. For others focusing merely a dim recollection, the idea of a shapes' slow movement represented, perceived only with imagination and will. Frequently hands positioned a sitter, arranged and navigated the surroundings. But hands are not eyes. We rely on verbal feedback. What exactly is in the frames rectangle? Which side of the face needs more exposure? Mark, or Donald or another assistant, advised, commented, suggested and sometimes, the our roles are reversed, allowing us to act out our complex or incomprehensible ideas. When the image is finally viewed and described, our efforts often surprised us, Unanticipated effects; thin tracks of light, glares, clusters of amorphous haze, a head slowly drooping during the long exposure, a mouth blurred by laughter, even the jiggled image from a camera collision all added visual drama. Another aspect of working with "light painting" that we valued was its ability to simultaneously depict very sharp tightly focused area, alongside ghostly forms ~ all these contrasts within a single photograph, seemed, for us an apt and appealing metaphor for the phenomenon of vision itself, quirky and atypical as it sometimes may be.

Biografia

Seeing with Photography Collective is a group of photographers based in New York City who are visually impaired, sighted and totally blind. 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. 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. Luminous distortions, blurred or glowing forms result from the technique, not digital altering. The nature of our visual limitations can provoke any viewer or perceiver of these portraits... Is less, more? What is seeing? What does one choose to see?