Images Without Sight: Frame 6: "How I Frame ... Life On the Infinity Setting"

Monday, September 7, 2009

Frame 6: "How I Frame ... Life On the Infinity Setting"

Circular stairway creeps into the corner, with texture of patterned carpet.

It is true most everyone believes that when one is blind they reside in darkness.

Perhaps some who are blind do, but most friends I know do not. For me I always see the light -- pardon the pun ....

There are days the whirling of the snow like whiteness is such a glare that it is as if someone is shining thousands of white particulate like mini flashlights into my eyeballs. Ouch! Even when I try to close my eyes to sleep they persist.

I digress.... The light can be helpful to me if it is not too bright and overwhelming. This is why taking photos earlier in the day and before the sun sets is better for me -- or on a cloudy day. It is okay for me when there is a bright sunny day if pollution or glare is minimal as well. It just all depends.

Bright Shasta daisy, dianthus, and Gaillardia counter garden bricks, hydrangea leaves and other shapes.

Pictures from three to six feet are easiest for me to frame or figure out. It is also easier if I know the area in which I take photos. My gardens -- I have many -- I know intimately. Each plant, old stump, vine, rock, planter and little garden accessory I have placed or planted around something nature has drawn me to. People are easy to place and pose; they generally are patient and will stay where you put them...unless they are naughty and playing me. But if they make noise or giggle I can tell they have moved and they know they have been busted!

Huge, solarized heads of hydrangea macrophylla droop in the sunlight.

What I find more challenging with the camera is that the viewfinder -- a useless necessity for me -- is on the extreme left of the top of the camera. It is therefore a challenge for me to keep the cameral level sometimes when clicking the shutter lever. "If" the viewfinder was dead center in the middle of the camera -- where I believe it logically should be -- it would be easier for me kinesthetically to hold the camera straight when I shoot. Especially this is true when I shoot photos at the infinity setting.

Recently I spent time in Montana, in Lincoln at my brother's spacious property and house. There is a valley with foothills to the Rockies the side of the house faces. I wanted to catch that scene over the little pines growing in their acreage .... I got verbal description, tried very ardently to hold the camera straight, held my breath and snapped the shutter. I took three photos as I wasn't quite sure how my shots would turn out.

Inez posing by a garden bed while windchimes reflect a ghostly sunlight - trim end of film

I also, when we were leaving, wanted a shot or two of my brother Jeff and his wife, my sissy, Sharon on their front porch veranda waving and holding each other. It was from a great distance as I wanted to have others see the greatness of the house, the prairie and the mountains. I had Jeff talk to me so I could find them and got the tiniest bit of audio description of the scene. I wanted an angle picture but I did not want the camera to tilt.... It was very hard, I admit, and I was not confident of the shot at all so I took two. Infinity -- long photo -- shots are the most difficult for me.

When I frame the close shots I can feel the subject, what is around the subject and if I am unsure I can check it out again if I feel my kinesthetics are off. I have much more confidence in this genre.

Nellie's pale fur is solarized and on fire, transforming her into an ephemeral apparition out on the deck.

Tess is the key to me learning from what shots I take. Our partnership is evolving and I do learn from her every time we have the opportunity to review the work I have done. I have a great deal of respect for the feedback she gives me. It is extremely helpful. My husband anxiously awaits the time he can actually view the prints. Though Bjorn has been with me for over two decades and knows I am capable in many fields, he is having a difficult time understanding my desire to photograph with this particular camera and with the b/w film that he thinks is too difficult to load. I keep telling him, "Wait until you see the photos." He says, "I'm waiting .... When?"

More luxurious hydreangea heads and leaves, dappled with light.

Ah, skeptics! To be fair, Bjorn is more curious than he is a skeptic. And I am thinking probably those who read the blog may be as well. All I know is though I am a very busy professional and busy at home as well, there is something pleasurable about the images I build in my head and the opportunities I make with the camera when those ideas in my head and those images come together in a photograph.

For now ...

Susan - and Inez

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What Motivates a Photographer?

One might think only a sighted person would be interested in photography, because they could see the outcome of their efforts. When I (a sighted person) started shooting in the dark using a Holga, I quickly began to enjoy the process of shooting itself. I found it challenging to think of new situations to shoot and new photographic possibilities. It was a challenge, also, to stumble around in the dark -- setting up my subject and determining how far it was from the camera lens. The pictures were almost second to this experience. So, Susan and I share a common interest.

Susan was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa when she was a child. She cannot see. If we are sitting by a window, Susan can tell there is light in that partof her vision, but beyond that she cannot discriminate by sight. Over the years even this ability has dimmed.

Susan navigates the larger world with the help of her Seeing Eye Dog, Inez, who is a happy and comic Golden Retriever. Nellie, Susan's retired Seeing Eye Dog, also lives at home. Both dogs figure prominently in Susan's life and their personalities come through in the photos on these pages.

Susan describes how she sets up a shoot: She walks around the set and feels everything for its relationship to the other subjects she wishes to capture. She walks back and forth to determine the distance to the subject and her ideal focal setting, and then snaps the picture.

If she is with someone, she might ask them what they see and then shoot with that information in mind.

What is motivating Susan to participate in this project? What motivates her as a photographer?

Susan describes herself as seeing in images, even if she can't see images the way I see images. She loves color, texture, and dimension. And she loves solving problems. To her, setting up a shoot is a challenge that she wants to meet. She meets each challenge with enjoyment and verve. I get the sense that the process might even be more important than the outcome.

Bio: Susan Gjolmesli

Susan Gjolmesli is the photographer for this project. She was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at the age of ten and navigates her world with the aid of a Seeing Eye dog, Inez. She is an avid gardener and was formerly a floral designer. Put that in your kettle of "preconceived notions."

Susan is Director of the Disability Resource Center at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Washington where she was recently named by the college as a Living Treasure. Her office works with students so they have access to classrooms, libraries, media and resources. Not only does the office provide physical assistance for classroom participation, they offer technology to translate traditional academic materials into media which can be consumed by the student. Technologies include scanners, braille printers, screen readers, mobile pda/scanners, personal media devices, text enlargers, and screen magnifiers, among others. The office serves as an advocate for students and an educational resource for the campus.

Susan is often called upon to present at events both on and off campus; she is a spoken advocate for equal rights. It would be trite to say that she has long been an advocate of the disabled. More to the point, she has worked to educate us as to how narrow-minded our view of the world can be -- inasmuch as we view people who are blind or deaf or require the aid of assistive devices as being "disabled."

Susan would be the last person to describe herself as disabled. In fact, the ability that she cannot see has empowered her in so many other ways that we take for granted.

Susan is also a writer, and her opinions may make you think twice about your own. Read her article,"You Shouldn't Have Any Children and Other Forms of Blindness."

You can also explore the Disability Resource Center at Bellevue College to see what these folks do to enable students to succeed. Software, hardware, technology, advice, support, and advocacy are all available to help students interact with what the majority of us think of as a "traditional" classroom.

Bio: Tess McMillan

This is an Independent Study Art Project I began while a student on scholarship at Bellevue College. Since graduating, I confess I don't really spend much time in a studio; I've become more of an office drone. However, I will never lose the appreciation for light that I gained through this project. It has been transformational.

It was while working with the Holga that I discovered my own love of shooting in the dark, illuminating my subjects by painting them with various kinds of light. People often think of photography as capturing something that exists at a given moment. I prefer to build my photographs using subjects that don't or can't exist together at any given moment.

As we concentrate more and more on technology, I see schools giving less emphasis to the study of art. This, in my opinion, is causing an entire generation of students to lose out in learning new ways of thinking, problem-solving, and seeing the world.