When camera becomes the eye

CHENNAI: What does the IIT Madras campus look like to someone who cannot see it? The answer may lie in the photographs currently on display at the Auditorium of Alliance Française of Madras.

The Art of Seeing Differently brings together photographs taken by blind and low vision students who explored the IIT Madras campus with sighted co-creators during a three-day workshop in July.

The workshop brought together more than 30 blind and low vision students from across the country, along with a few blind professors from Chennai. They were paired with sighted volunteers, referred to as co-creators, and guided through the process by photographer and educator Partho Bhowmick, founder of Blind With Camera.

One of the participants was Dr Hemachandran Karah, Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras and co-founder and principal investigator of ARC (Accessibility Research Centre).

For him, the workshop was also an opportunity to explore photography in a new way.

“For many of the participants, it was their first experience with photography. The workshop was not simply about learning how to operate a camera, but about understanding light, reflections, composition and the possibilities of creating an image without sight,” says Hemachandran.

The group explored different spots across the IIT Madras campus, a space known for its greenery, trees, open spaces and architecture. “After a session on the basics of photography, Partho took the participants around the campus for hands-on exercises, allowing them to experience the space and find their own ways of photographing it. The resulting images show a different way of looking at a familiar place.”

Hemachandran recalls that Partho introduced ways of using bodies to help steady and align the camera. “Blind people use their body as a tripod. There is no shake. When the camera is straightened against my chin, the camera is likely facing the object,” he explains.

Understanding light is another important part of the process. A photographer does not necessarily need sight to understand how light falls, how reflections behave or how a camera can be positioned towards a subject.

Hemachandran, who was also a participant, has been wanting to photograph the clouds. “I placed the mobile on my head, facing the cloud. My co-creator also helped me. The picture came out really well,” shares the excited professor.

From the collection created during the workshop, a selection of photographs has now been brought together for the exhibition.

“Each image reflects a different way of experiencing the same campus, shaped by touch, sound, memory, guidance and imagination. The exhibition carries a larger message too. Photography is often considered an activity that belongs to those who can see. This collection challenges that assumption and the workshop is only a beginning. I hope more techniques and approaches will emerge as blind photographers continue to experiment with image making,” he tells DT Next.

Hemachandran also tells us about another participant, Suresh, who is deaf and has limited vision and captured some interesting photographs. “Suresh faced challenges not with the camera, but with communication. People didn’t know how to explain things to him or involve him. But Suresh kept trying, and he has taken some amazing pictures.”

The Art of Seeing Differently is on display until August 26 at the Auditorium, Alliance Française of Madras.

The exhibition is presented in collaboration with The Accessibility Research Centre, IIT Madras, SRM Institute of Science & Technology, Alliance Française of Madras and the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities.