Maybe you have never asked yourself this question: but How do blind and visually impaired people take photos? Well, after seeing the shots of the blind photographer John Batista Mayan of Silva at the Paris Paralympics many people asked themselves this question. In order to photograph people with serious vision problems, they not only use their other senses (hearing and smell especially) or they use a visual assistant which gives them essential visual details for the shots. These people also have a great deal of help from the technologyespecially thanks to the voice assistance that allows you to take photographs and selfies with your phones and which is also present in some cameras, allowing you to capture memorable moments in a clear and precise way.
Technology Comes to the Aid of the Visually Impaired and Blind: From Apple’s VoiceOver to Camera Live View
In recent years, cell phones have allowed blind and partially sighted people to take pictures by themselves, thanks, for example, to screen readers. VoiceOver from Apple, which makes the app accessible camera even to this type of user. VoiceOver reads the various buttons and options as you drag your finger across the screen (it even announces the orientation of the camera, so you don’t have to take photos from the side), making it easier to adjust the camera and its modes. But that’s not all, because this feature detect faces and announces how many are in the frame, to make selfies even easier. And then there’s the panoramic photo: the user moves the phone from left to right, and VoiceOver guides it in a straight line, giving him directions in case your hands are too high or low, so you can capture the best possible shots.
Pixel phones have a very similar accessibility feature, the Guided Framewhich uses a screen reader that guides the user through a series of steps to take a selfie, telling him where to move the phone and how to position himself. When the image is ready, it automatically takes the picture. Visually impaired people with a passion for photography often choose cell phones that in addition to voice assistance have high resolution cameras and then enlarge photos on your PC or tablet to be able to observe the details.
Voice assistant functions also exist on some cameras professionals. If the camera has custom sensors, some photographers with vision problems may also decide to shoot in wavelengths that cannot be seen with the naked eye (You can even do this with some vintage cameras.) Visually impaired people often shoot using the live view (the camera allows you to take the photo while you can see the image in real time on the LCD screen) rather than the viewfinder, because the former allows you to have a more compact overall view of the photographed scene.
The experience of John Maia da Silva and the importance ofthe senses and assistance
Some might wonder why blind or severely visually impaired people try their hand at photography if they cannot then observe their shots. But the answers are the same as those applicable to people who do not have this type of problem, and can be summed up with the importance of photography for to recall and remember a particular moment or a special place you have been and share it with loved ones. And then there is also the case of those who have always worked in the field of photography and at a certain point in their existence their sight has disappeared for one reason or another.
This second case is that of the blind photographer of Brazilian origins John Batista Mayan of Silva He amazed everyone with his splendid shots at the last three editions of the Paralympics. Maia lost her sight at the age of 28 due to uveitis that affected both eyes, but she never abandoned her passion for photography, and even after this great change – despite her vision being “like a blurry photograph”, in her own words – she continued to work as a photographer.
Already known in the sports world for his shots at the Olympics Rio 2016 And Tokyo 2020her shooting technique is very particular: Maia uses her senses (first of all hearing – his main guide, with which he listens to the athletes’ movements – then touch and smell) to perceive what is around him and to orient himself by feeling the vibrations, thus capturing the important moments with his camera. For important events like this one he was helped by an assistant who described some visual details (colors, expressions, etc.) of the athletes’ performances, and the result is truly incredible.
His photography is a visual chronicle, capturing fleeting moments and sharing emotions, sounds and touches. In an interview with Olympics.com the photographer said:
Blind photography is a way of experimenting with our perceptions, latent in each of us. Each of us has our own perception, and it can be explored better when it is absent. In my case, sight is absent, but I can stimulate my hearing, my touch, my smell, my taste more. (…) But above all I imagine, and I shoot with my heart. When someone asks me for advice on photography, I answer like this: “Before taking a photo, stop, think, study the place, feel the energy around you, the light, the smells. Try to discover the story behind everything before clicking. All this makes up my images”.
Maia teaches us that in addition to the physical capacity of our gaze, to take a photograph it is even more essential knowing how to “see” beyond one’s own eyesusing imagination as a primary source to immortalize what is important.
