Customer Reviews

Shooting Blind: Photographs By The Visually Impaired

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My eyes went wet when I browse through the striking images printed in "Shooting Blind: Photographs by the Visually Impaired". These unpretentious and sensual portraitures knock me down like a hammer strike. My colleagues ask me (I showed them the publication) if the blind photograhers could see their end products and I told him this does not really matter and we should treat the images as a gift to us (those who can really 'see'?!), a gift which could lead us thinking the meaning and the quest of seeing. These images are amazing graces!

For decades our so called Art World and mainstream Art History merely focus upon 'sophisticated' works and have neglected voices from minorities. The institutionalization of Art (with a capital A) by museum, gallery, collectors, curators and academics have buried the original essential nature of perceptual
experience and creative will.

I treat the photographers in this book a violate act up against the stagnated world. I truly hope the publisher Aperture or other Art dealers not to give a price tag to these honest images and leave them away from the fateful destinations and genres of Postmodern Photography.

"Shooting Blind" is a fascinating photographic study, as all the contributors are visually impaired. Accompanying interviews with the photographers indicate that many of them wanted to represent how they see the world - an impression of what it is like to experience a vision loss. They've accomplished this admirably by using an innovative flashlight technique, creating eerie light and shadows. This photographic technique is interesting in its own right, and its usage in the photographs can also be viewed purely as art, with no compelling need to know about the photographer's vision loss. One particularly magical photo is that of a violinist, with light and mist rising from the instrument, giving it an ethereal mystical quality, almost allowing the viewer to see the music flowing from the violin. "Shooting Blind" had a profound effect on me - allowing me to enter the world of people who are visually impaired, while at the same time making me realize that art doesn't have to be bound by our own limitations.