DIGGING DEEPER
This is a start. Here we are linking to several website, texts and images, which we feel might be interesting for further exploration. For additional contributions or suggestions please feel free to contact admin@shotinthedark-film.com
EXHIBITION »SIGHT UNSEEN«
The travelling exhibition SIGHT UNSEEN, which shows photographs by Sonia Soberats, Bruce Hall and Pete Eckert (along with the photographs of 12 other blind or visually impaired photographers), has collected some of the internationally most accomplished photographical works of blind or visually impaired visual artists. The exhibition is curated by Douglas McCulloh and hostet by CURATORIAL ASSISTANCE. The exhibition has been extended year by year and has been shown by several important museums and galleries (Kennedy Center for the Arts Washington DC, Centro de la Imagen Mexico City, Sejong Center Seoul, Flacon Arts Complex Moscow).
SIGHT UNSEEN (EXTENDED) IN CANADA
SIGHT UNSEEN (ORIGINAL PREMIERE) AT THE CALIFORNIA MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY. The catalogue (as of June 2016) is still available for DOWNLOAD AS A PDF
MORE RELEVANT ARTISTS
Further important blind and visually impaired artists, who work with photography:
STEVEN ERRA. Steven Erra is based in New York City. He works as a painter, photographer and writer. Steven also took part in the film by supporting Sonia Soberats in the maiking of her photograph »Sword«. PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVEN ERRA, STEVEN’S BLOG
HASHIM KIRKLAND. Hashim Kirkland is a photographer based in New York City. He is a member of the Seeing With Photography Ciollective. Hashim also appears several times in the film Shot in the Dark joining and working together with Sonia Soberats. PHOTOGRAPHY BY HASHIM KIRKLAND
VICTORINE FLOYD FLUDD, based in NYC, also is a founding member of the Seeing With Photography Collective. PHOTOGRAPHY BY VICTORINE FLOYD FLUDD.
The SEEING WITH PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIVE (SWPC), NEW YORK CITY, inspiringly supported and led by artist MARK ANDRES, is a place in New York City, where blind, visually impaired and sighted artists work and experiment and explore together. The Collective published, among several presentations and exhibitions, the wonderful book SHOOTING BLIND, PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED, Aperture Foundation 2002. It presents extraordinary black and white photography made with large format cameras and polaroids.
KURT WESTON worked as an accomplished fashion photographer in Chicago before he lost his eyesight. In his series HEARTS OF A SILENT AGE he uses a flatbed-scanner as a portrait-camera. Kurt Weston’s biography has been co-written by ALINA OSWALD and is available in bookstores or via KURT WESTON’S WEBSITE
JAN BÖLSCHE is a photographer based in Berlin. JAN BÖLSCHE’S WEBSITE
ALICE WINGWALL is a photographer based in California. She exhibits regularly, also annually at Photo L.A. ALICE WINGWALL’S WEBSITE
ROSITA McKENZIE is a photographer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. ROSITA McKENZIE’S WEBSITE
The Indian magazine for photography BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY introduces 18 blind photographers from India and the US in this ARTICLE.
TEXTS ON VISUAL ARTS AND BLINDNESS
GERALD PIRNER is a blind essayist, art critic and writer based in Berlin, Germany. He reflects in an extraordinarily precise and lucid way on his experiences with art as a blind person.
KARSTEN HEIN, based in Berlin, together with TINA PAULICK, based in Dublin, publishes an amazing blog BILDER FÜR DIE BLINDEN (PICTURES FOR THE BLIND) together with several blind and sighted authors.
DOUGLAS McCULLOH, curator of the exhibition SIGHT UNSEEN, who himself is an acclaimed photographer, has written several outstanding essays on the subject of photography and blindness. BLINDNESS AND THE ZERO-POINT OF PHOTOGRAPHY and SHOOTING BLIND.
STEVEN ERRA’s essay THE LABYRINTH OF NIGHT describes in an unique and poetic way his true experiences of an artist losing sight but continuing to create under and with respect to the changing conditions of perception. An excerpt of his essay is published in the booklet accompaniying the DVD of Shot in the Dark.
FURTHER READING
GEORGINA KLEEGE, SIGHT UNSEEN, Yale University Press 1998. The blind essayist Georgina Kleege explores the representation of blindness and blind humans in film, literature and arts in a stunningly precise and concises way.
ROBERT V. HINE, SECOND SIGHT, University of California Press 1993. Historian and professor Robert Hine loses his sight – and regains it by a medical operation and treatment. His observations in the academic and his private world as a blind person. Kind of a diary.
KURT WESTON and ALINA OSWALD, JOURNEYS THROUGH DARKNESS, Blurb Edition 2011. Biography of the artist and known fashion photographer KURT WESTON, who loses his sight because of an early HIV-infection and premature medical treatment.
PARTHO BHOWMICK, SEE AS NO OTHER, Partridge Publishing 2015. The book presents photographs of the project BLIND WITH CAMERA in Mumbai, India. Essays and experiences with the project by Partho Bhowmick, additional texts by Douglas McCulloh and Simon Hayhoe.
JOSÉ SARAMAGO, BLINDNESS, famous novel. Brought to the screen by FERNANDO MEIRELLES.
INITIATIVES AND COOPERATIONS
BLIND PHOTOGRAPY PROJECT Photographer and curator Alejandra Loreto works with blind photographers in Vienna and Caracas. Some of the project’s photographs have been exhibited January 2017 in Vienna (Lumina-Gallery), Lindengasse 65, 1070 Wien. Follow the project on Instagram.
BLIND WITH CAMERA project, Mumbai (India), which was started 2004 by Partho Bowmick. Holding workshops and presenting exhibitions, from the continuous work developed a group of strong photographers comprising Pranav Lal, Kanchan Pamnani, Mahesh Umrrania, Raju Singh and many more.
SEEING WITH PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIVE Manhattan (NYC). Inspired by the contributions of all of the collective’s artists including co-founder Mark Andres this collaborative group of blind, visually impaired and sighted artists over many years has accomplished a most wonderful and extensive body of work exploring techniques like light-painting, box camera and large scale polaroids (among others).