Nothing Peripheral: A Sight Impaired Artist

Thursday, February 2, 2012

More with the laser pointer

Back at the camera again!

Thanks to trollface.ru.blogspot for linking to this blog. Big increase in traffic here!

Recently I told you about some work I wanted to start which used projected slide images. I took another road though and have been just immersed with using a red laser pointer as the light source instead of the usual flashlight. Seeing With Photography Collective artist Stephen Dominguez used the laser pointer, read more about Stephen HERE .

Now the thing I like about the laser pointer is the linear quality. Its just so suitable and expressive. In many ways it reminds me of when I used to create etchings on zinc plates, and scratched away with a sharp needle to make the drawing on the plates coating. I sense this "drawing " aspect more strongly than with the usual flashlight.

These are arrangements, objects relating to vision and light, lamp, slide carousel and mirror edged with sun rays.

In the self portrait of the previous post, I kept some of the original red color -just desaturated it- but the objects here weren't suited for the red orange hues and would have looked strange, so am viewing the results only in black and white on the cameras viewfinder and they'll remain b and w.

The extreme lights and darks I like, but here and there I want to bring out more subtle, gray areas too so I'll try a flashlight -laser combo next time.

I miss being in the workshops at 23^rd street ,and think I can manage to return next week, maybe even get copies of those portaits I made before my accident.

1.27.12 #4

Sunday, January 8, 2012

1.8.12

The next series of light paintings I'm planning will use a slide projector to cast a complex pattern. I have a large collection of slides, many taped together to layer images on top of each other. Some I used bleach to almost destroy the color. Some I scratched and etched away parts of the image. Still have to figure some things out, but can't manage using the projector right now, with the foot-cast still on, as it involves a lot of moving around and maneuvering.
So while you, my impatient viewers, drum your fingers in anticipation, I'll post some older light paintings from the Guanajuato series.

Holding pattern...

It's been more than a month now since I broke my foot. The cuboid bone shattered and splinered and , the planar fascia tendon that is under one's arch, ruptured too. It's excruciatingly painful, and the medication helps, but keeps me groggy. I don't know. Gimping around with a "walking cast" makes the usual clumsiness of near tiotal blindness a bit more pronounced. Luckily my friends Mikhail and Darius have come to my aid, and will visit my parents for Christmas soon. But for my photography, all is on hold. Be patient please. I'll heal up well and be back, swinging my flashlight again. Have a great Holiday and even better 2012

Friday, November 18, 2011

I hate it when that happens

Broke my foot. New challenges.
Stepped off the 5th av bus and wham, sprawled out on the gritty sidewalk in the shadow of the Flatiron building. A white cane is useful, but we nearly blind all know good eyes are preferred. Personally- an ironic place for such nastiness too, since 23rd and Fifth Av, where the graceful Flatiron building presides, is my all time favorite place in the city. Here's Steichen's iconic photograph of that place - from the turn of the 20th century. Twilight, the merging of Broadway and Fifth Av, the subtle shadowed reality of urban business, can seem as magical as his rendering, preserved in a cool toned platnum print. Had a postcard of this tacked to my old studio once. I wont be able to work on finishing the Occupy Wall Street image for awhile, but soon hope to post a few other portraits made just before my accident.
Above, Edward Steichen - The Flatiron, 1904

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Study 3 for Occupy Wall Street Image

Last night at Zucotti Park - Liberty Plaza

Some of us from the Seeing With Photography Collective went to the epicenter of the Occupy wall Street movement. Our time there wasn't long. View our results at the link below.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seeingwithphotography/sets/72157627948664690/show/
Above,Seda and Michael, by Seeing With Photography Collective

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Work in progress - Occupy Wall Street image

The ideas and aspirations of the Occupy Wall Street movement are powerful. I posted a link to an unforgettable video here - Oct 3 - its moved me to create a work inspired by its symbolic message. My idea is to show some wealthy Wall street people enjoying champagne and looking down from their balcony at the demonstrators below. They hold up pet food, (my neighborhood supermarket cashier, whom I've known for years, gave me a puzzled look) Its a symbolic gesture. I protested with someone in mind, a close relative who joined the unemployed recently, and can't find work, and was evicted form his apartment, and is surviving just barely. Last week I held up cat food when I marched with many others, past the homes of the privileged.
I sketched out my idea, figures above and below, and yesterday I started. Donald helped me plan it out, many others helped, its a complicated image to make, as it needs three seperate exposures, but, some of it is done. I just need to add some more figures below, thinking all the time of how to translate social and political -to visual and universal. I hope to finish it next week. PS- Some of us will go to Zucatti Park- Liberty Plaze on Friday, maybe we can make portraits of the activists.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Tuesday

Went to Occupy Wall Street protest, marched past some billionaire's homes, held up cat food as my protest. More soon about this.

Monday, October 3, 2011

A picture (or video) is worth a thousand words

Never doubt the power of the symbol. This video will be remembered for many, many years - just astonishing how a small clip can speak to a truth, more immediate and understood than volumes of political rhetoric.
OccupyWallStreet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2PiXDTK_CBY

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

9.27.11

This ancient fresco dates from around 450 bc. Recovered from central Italy, typical in its rendering reality of that time and place, from the provincial artistic backwaters, far from the art centers of Athens and Corinth. It reflects, though weakly, Greek painting. This area of Italy was colonized and influenced by Greek culture. Stylized shapes, linear outlines filled with unshaded, pure color are noticed. You aren't checking out this blog for Art history I guess, so I'll keep it brief.

The sense that is evoked on looking, is a sense of pattern. It is a ritual dance of some sort, just a small section is shown here. The exact meaning uncertain, and, for me, not as important as its visual form -it resonates beyond mere "identification" and speaks universally.This fresco inspired the light painting here.

I had seen this work when I was an art student, it has its place among the galleries in my memory.

The artists at SWPC were excited about the photographic technique of stitching together numerous photographs to form one continuous loop. You spin the looped images round and round in one dizzying whirl, its interesting. You can view some here.

Recalling this fresco, it occurred to me that the dancers poses could be exciting to try as a frieze with this photographic stitching.

I sketched out a composition, a long frieze of figures. But my own idea was to show blind people whose linked arms reflected more of a sense of mobility. We experience walking differently when seeing isn't an option, and need to be guided, So this guiding, informed by the locked arms of the dancers in the fresco, is central in my concept. I remember someone commented as I posed my models, that the correct procedure when walking is for blind people to put their hands on a persons shoulder. Sure enough, but I wasn't trying to imitate actuality, but to bring out my own "vision" of a concept. I've always been perplexed about the term"conceptual art", as if concept was ever absent from meaningful art

A figure behind is holding a lit torch, symbolising "lighting the way forward", while at the end of this trail of the unseeing a white blind cane is offered to a straggler, who's less sure of her whereabouts. Mark helped a great deal with figuring out the joins- where each separate image melded into the adjacent one. This image needed many separate exposures aligned. It took a considerable time to finish. Mark helped me light up the spaces. Part of my original idea, drawn in the sketch, were small flying figures who, like the torch bearer, assist the blind people through the dark. Left those out though, preoccupied by the details in getting it all together. Maybe I'll retry this one at some point.
Above, Tomb fresco from Ruvo Italy, Mobility Frieze

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Maria

"Maria is the daughter of Mark’s friend, they thought it would be a nice idea for her to come in and see disabled people actively involved. The previous week Mark told me about her serious medical condition, confining her to a small, stroller like carriage, although about 9 or so. We knew to expect her, but I suppose I was sill shaken a little when we met.

She is so small, entirely frailer than my imagination hinted at. I talked with her about doing a simple head shot and asked of she wanted to pose. I tried to smile, but that must have seemed absurd in the presence of a suffering child. Maria is more than this though.

I had a quiet feeling while lighting it, that this might be a special image. It didn’t take long. Maria’s face and torso took up only a small area.

When I peeled the print away, I was floored at how the picture retained her soulful presence and courage, but tried to control my emotions. We did another one too, with more of the floor showing her sitting on a wooden chair, while behind her, on a pillar, an odd rubber mask. Vicky also spent time with Maria, and, with Mark, photographed her lying down. This one also has that sad, but, resigned quality of spirit, so frail and yet, present in it. Years later Mark put this picture up at the show we had at the Paul Labrec Spa, but was requested to remove it, too strong for someone being manicured to see. It was eventually enlarged to a great size and exhibited in its own little alcove at our Las Palmas exhibition in Rotterdam. With dim lighting, it was almost like a sacred shrine.

Coming in later that day Stephen met Maria too, they talked quietly, almost whispering, sitting closely together, lighting up a little aluminum - foil construction. Maria’s family eventually moved to Vermont, to make things easier for them."
Excerpt from "Lifting the Blindfold; Voices of the Seeing With Photography Collective"
Above, Maria c. 2002

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Welcome

"Nothing Peripheral" is essentially an art blog, a journal of images and wotds shuffling back and forth in time. I'm not dutiful to regular or timely posting so, there are kind of large gaps, but whenever I make imagery I just have to show, it'll get here.

Many light paintings are on these pages as well as some writing. Since most of my work now is created using the "light painting" technique of photography a quick definition can explain the photographs you see. A light painting is a long exposure photo putting the camera on a sturdy tripod and in a very dark room or other space. The shutter is left open and the photographer uses a flashlight to paint their subject over a lengthy time period.

Visual artists who have very diminished sight or who are totally blind, are expanding the rich and varied facets of art even further now and I'm fortunate to be a part.

Since so much of my work now is created using the light painting technique, a quick definition could be helpful. Basically a camera is on a steady tripod and in a very dark room or space the shutter is left open and the artists subject is painted with the light shining from a flashlight.

I began light painting in 1997 with the Seeing With Photography Collective here in New Yprk City.

Contact me eonradius@yahoo.com

At the Light Painting World Alliance websites, you'll find the phrase “Night is Canvas” . Night is no ordinary word for me, I suffer from night blindness. It's a powerful, often frightening word, separating me from the able bodied, putting me in the folder labelled "Unable"- legally blind, asking for help to cross the street. Night, and its draining, light-less hardships, needn’t be only that. After all, the other part, “canvas” is what matters more in the end.

I belong to a group of photographers based in New York City called the seeing With photography Collective. Many in our art group are blind or sight impaired, like myself. We create and exhibit light paintings.

The very nature of our visual limitations can provoke any viewer or perceiver of these images...Is less, more? What is seeing?

Night is often our permanent reality too, as sightless people. I myself am nearly blind, but see a little too, now and then, so I stand in two realms. Every cast shadow, each building entrance, robs me of sight.

I'm desperate for light really, any light, any scrap of stray, ineffectual photon, I feel the desperation -my dying retinas ravenous to see, like an emaciated, skeletal dog will gnaw and scour the air off the alley.

From the context of blindness, the word “ light” glows with particular, symbolism beyond its physical nature. It glows with reflected and diming echoes morphing with sighs and regrets at its intolerable loss, its hopes, its whispered paradises....of incandescent agility and certainty. Light's abandonment lingers like afterglow, we swallow hard, loosing spectacle, comparison, choice and pleasure.

To speak of light, we speak of its opposite nature too, embedded and not apparent. A dual part barely recognized, yet always there lurking, frowning and nodding within - the dark.

Our group originated from a photography class for blind and sight impaired students. Mark Andres, our teacher, taught us the technique of light painting in 1997. Mark was interested to learn what we would make of the technique as it involves using the mind in a place where we all were equally in the dark. It wasn’t about capturing a decisive moment, as much as constructing something. There was resonance with the technique, and we as a group, haven't put down our flashlights yet.

There are a variety of people who shoot light paintings but can't see. Some have little background in photography or any visual art media, some enjoyed photography for the usual reasons before loosing their eyesight. Others were actively involved in serious image making for a very long time, and found there an artistic outlet to explore.

Some in our group see nothing, though many have some remaining, but minimal vision. A few see well, even what's termed “normally”.

When I was told there was an actual photography class for blind and sight impaired students back in 1993, I remember I was surprised, a little sceptical, but beaming with happiness because others had understood that making visual art and not seeing were not mutually exclusive. I felt like a connection was made between two threads that had been re- attached. Two electric wires that needed to join, finally did in that bland basement classroom at the VISIONS Blind Services Organization, where we work.

At first it sounds improbable, but just at first. Like some new rhythm, some unfamiliar but absorbing thing.

Memories play a part in our group's imagery, but they aren’t the sole theme by any means.

Sunshine and faces, that funny red chair, costumes, picnics and monsters, movies and night clubs, cartoons and sports events, ancient frescoes and scary subway rides, and countless other memories of the world of light, all reform before our flashlights.

Despite sight loss we all have memory and ideas to explore in our mind's eye long after our biological eyes give up on the act and art of looking.

We re- create them again, different maybe, not duplicates, not snapshots, but works that bring out that memory or theme with the perspectives all shifted, energized, sparkling.

The light painter's dark frame invites all photographers to come and illuminate. I think it must be hard for any photographer to resist the urge to try one given the chance. Its darkness is very familiar territory, our default color, our resigned dark velvet blindfold that we can't tear away. We run our hands around the frameed out scene, through the central spaces, feeling fringes and walls,,touching whats on the other side of the camera’s viewAnd shine our little flashlights on that night canvas, painting with light...quivering fabrics shaken and moved around firey beings amid Interstellar jewels.

The light paintings aren't made quickly, they take a few minutes and our models shift a little, droop a little over time. The laughs ensue at the results, three eyes, squashed noses, pinheads, people morphed into squat statuettes and ghostly elfs.

Mostly its a collaborative effort when we work, but more experienced artists can work independently too. And focusing? That’s done by a sighted assistant but does a film director focus their own motion picture cameras? The minor things like focusing are a different story from the major things like ideas, composition and lighting, that are done by the sightless, sighted, or sight impaired photographer.

None of this is surprising of course, as a visual artist I understand it.

The blind photographers will also direct where each person, object or background area is, and how all should be positioned, so again, the creative control is left to the photographer, the sighted assistant just letting them know things like what's in, or not in the camera's frame.

There's struggle, there's the battle against the dark. I sense this in our work, but, maybe it’s my own internal projection. We light-less, enact on some level, a very core, very primal encounter that's a universal archetype - the struggle of light over dark. It's mainly subconscious and maybe not fully realized, even by we who make the work,. Archetypes can work well as form, as far as art goes, I think.

And there's defiance in that frame too - the flashlight as weapon in this effort, this determination to hold on, and not go quietly into the darkness.

Some have said our imagery can be nightmarish or sad, and that's sometimes so.

Yet there's an enorous variety of themes and styles found among our member's work, fashionable runway stylizations, Biblical tableaux, happy partying and old Master re-enactments are all here, cheerfully hued, non angst- ridden enough to be hung comfortably above a living room sofa.

Comparing our group's work with other light paintings, I see a difference but I’m not sure what it is. I don't see us as being fixated on pretty lights or special effects, just for the sake of prettiness or coolness that you forget a minute later. They seem simpler, but still visually nuanced and raw simultaneously.

We sometimes teach workshops and I recall some photographers who had a difficult time letting go of their light meter mind -set, and stared at me in sceptical disapproval when I said the timing was a matter of experience. It was sort of fun being a guy with a white blind cane walking into things, and giving lessons on how to make photographs. You get used to these sorts of things really.

In a way taking images with out seeing is a significant reorganization of expectations.

A blindfold can work great as a teaching tool. We use them with the sighted students. Many really are thrilled to be blindfolded, and smile, and grope around, saying “Wow” and getting goose -bumps feeling things, and just delving into their other senses that are mainly ignored in the photography studio. But other photographers have quite a hard time letting go.

By deliberately shutting out light itself, and briefly inviting in the harrowing, dreadful fear of any visual artist, blindfolding touches on certain elements of psychology and creativity that are good to be aware of.

Donald Martinez, a sighted member of our collective, sometimes closes his eyes when he makes a light painting, to distance himself further from the tightness, the crispness and control, the domination of light upon the mind.

Human nature doesn't want to relinquish feedback from our efforts, our ears from our music, our taste from our cooking, yet some can never have the full visual assessment of their work that eyes provide.

How does the blind photographer know what they have made? Those who can see describe, and become the eyes ...providing the scope, the tone, and narrative that will form the structure of the new creation, glowing unseen on the camera's digital screen and glowing too in a different way, in the internal mind of the unseeing artist.

Lately the work of blind and sight impaired visual artists is becoming more widely known. It’s a new facet in the cultural legacy of art.

What do we have to offer the world of light? Maybe we can act as a sort of mirror. One that reflects your views, maybe shifting and nudging cozy presumptions.

I've no confident theory to pre

sent on the nature of blind photography. For me, and many in the Seeing With Photography Collective, it’s an experience to be lived, dim and flickering sometimes, loud and warm at others.

Without light... voices take on an expansive, rich meaning. Ideas loom more directly. There's less distraction by visual clutter. Working in the dark with my group causes me no gut-churning dread, no dizzying loss.

Something memorable happens creating imagery in the dark, with the dark, the dark as our supportive friend, all of us sighted or blind together, thinking, trying, laughing, describing, listening...weaving something.

Light is essentially indifferent, angled into the lens of an eye or cold camera, we give it meaning and arrange its context. In the intertwining of sighted and not sighted, one thread describing another, eventually we all must close our eyes in sleep, lightless sighted and blind alike, and all our dreaming eyes understand and gaze, and see.

IGHT IS CANVAS