Seeing Beyond Sight: Photographs by Blind Teenagers (Hardcover)

by Tony Deifell (Author), Robert Coles (Foreword) "When I first saw the photographs of the sidewalk, I thought they were a mistake..." (more)
Key Phrases: family photo album, shrimp boat, Carolina Beach

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
In 1992 Deifell started a photography club at North Carolina's Governor Morehead School for the Blind. From three students, the club burgeoned into a class entitled "Sound Shadows." Culling from the teenage students' photos during his five years at the school, Deifell mounts an impressive showcase in chapters--"Distortion," "Refraction," "Reflection," "Transparence," and "Illuminance"--whose titles he explains in the introduction. Ranging in degree of blindness from low vision to light perception to no vision, the students used point-and-shoot cameras and, as "Sound Shadows" suggests, aural and other sensory cues to find subjects. Reason and fancy played large parts, too. To photograph the wind, a 13-year-old shot leaves scattered on the ground. One girl's first picture was an act of protest; she shot a badly cracked campus sidewalk and sent the image to the superintendent. For a self-portrait, another 13-year-old shot her reflection in a car's passenger-side mirror. Some illustrated dreams and fears very effectively. All made vigorous and moving "this is my world" pictures. Not a few made high-order "art" photos. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description
With its ambitious, seemingly paradoxical premise, Seeing Beyond Sight is a book of photographs taken by teenagers with limited or no sight. Seeing Beyond Sight documents how educator Tony Deifell taught his blind students to take pictures as an innovative, multi-sensory means of self-expression. Their intuitive images are surprising and often beautiful. Complementing the photographs are the students' own words explaining what the process and images mean to them. Seeing Beyond Sight is a rare book of visual art and an educational resource that speaks with inspirational power, not only to the visually impaired community, but to anyone who has ever considered what it means to see.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811853497
• ISBN-13: 978-0811853491
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #418,908 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perception Beyond Seeing. , March 3, 2007

By	Clare Mulvany - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a gem. It's a reminder that perception is so much more than sight and that seeing is a way of engagement with the world rather than simply looking.

As the photographs unfold, they take you on a journey into what is relevant in the photographers' lives; how light and dark play as guides; how cracks in the pavement interrupt; how what some take for granted, others are denied. The photos open up new ways of seeing and understanding our environment and the spectrum of people who interact with it.

Deifell's sensitive and thoughtful text gives a further dimension to the book, gently provoking the reader to examine how they see others, and how they see themselves.

Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New perspectives, March 10, 2007

By	James Fruchterman (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just finished reading Seeing Beyond Sight, and it is both about blindness and much more. My work for almost twenty years has been helping blind people, and the idea that visually people take photographs is not to me foreign at all. A significant number of blind people are low vision, and photographs can be a way to visually see things that their eyes don't show them. Some of the students in this book fall into this group where photos become an aid.

But, most of the photographers in Tony Deifell's book cannot see the photographs they are taking. Yet, they get tremendous value out of them. Just like sighted people, the students proudly show their photos around to other people. Becoming a photographer unlocks the voice of still others. One photo becomes a tool for advocacy, as in fix this crack in the sidewalk that catches my white cane!

I was surprised and delighted with the both the book and the photos. So much of taking great pictures is seeing things from a new perspective, and I learned that that's definitely in the cards when blind students take pictures.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Touching and Beautiful, January 10, 2008

By	ahashem - See all my reviews

I saw this book at a design conference I went to. It brought tears to my eyes. The images are powerful and the stories about the students are moving. One reason the book moved me so much is I am an artist who is at high risk of one day going blind. I always feared that going blind would end my career as a photographer and designer. This book made me rethink my roll as an artist and it encouraged me not to fear going blind. Plus I gave the book to my mom who is legally blind for Christmas. She pointed at a few of the pictures and said "That is how I see. I can't believe it. This is the most amazing gift." It is inspiring and beautiful. I have never come across a book that has spoke so dearly to my own experience. I am so grateful that I stumbled across this treasure.