In this shoot, I will be continuing to capture images relating to experiences where the sensory input has been affected in some way. This shoot will focus on the sensory experience involving sight and will include being blind or visually impaired, being short sighted or long sighted.
I have planned this shoot by gathering appropriate props that will convey to viewers that the subject in the image has a sight impairment. These props include a tactile card with braille writing on it, a long white stick that is used by visually impaired people to determine if there are obstacles or steps or kerbs in front of them, a fluorescent dog bib used to convey that they are an assistance dog. I will also use my own glasses, for short-sightedness, and my mum’s reading glasses and a book as a prop.
My intension is to first capture images showing a person with the impaired sense as they go about their normal life experiencing the world. Then if possible capture images or adapt them in Photoshop to show how the sensory experience differs from what could be thought of as a normal experience.
I plan on using my light box to capture detailed images of the braille card so that the raised dots are clearly visible and the tactile nature of them can be seen.
Research influence
For this shoot, the photographer who has influenced me in some of my images is Lee Friedlander. He is a well-known American photographer who capturers images of urban life. His images reveal the normal chaos of life, including images of cars, streets, adverts, shop fronts and televisions but he adds a creative element by taking shots through shop windows or through car mirrors. Using his fascination with transparency and reflection he has documented the places he has been and the emotions he felt overt the last 50 years.
In this image taken by Friedlander of Haverstraw, New York in 1966 illustrates his effective use of framing in an image. The photo is taken through the car's windscreen so that this provides a frame for the driver positioned behind the wheel. Then as you look further at the image your eye is drawn deeper into the image to more framing, that of the view of a small town framed by the cars back window and it is this that holds the viewer’s attention.
Friedlander’s success with using framing to focus the viewer’s attention and create interest has influenced and inspired me to also use this technique in my own project. By using frames I can focus the viewer attention on to the part of the image where I want it to be. I plan on using the view through spectacles to illustrate the sensory experience of being long or short-sighted. It was seeing the power and effectiveness of Friedlander’s use of framing that partly inspired me to compose images in this way. This technique will draw the viewer’s eye to where I want it to be, the differences between the quality of the vision inside and outside of the spectacles frame.Contact sheet
Image bank
I used my light box to capture tactile images of the braille writing on the card, with someone using touch to read the text. I varied the position of the card to make the dots look as 3 dimensional as possible.
I combined three images taken with different depths of field to create a composite image which reflects how a person who is short-sighted visually experiences the world.
I used the magnifying ability of reading glasses to capture how they enable a long-sighted person to remove the blur from small text and so experience reading the book.
My Cocker Spaniel dog Dante is 12 years old and has developed cataracts in his eyes. This means that parts of his vision are obscured. The vet said that dogs adapt well to restrictions in their sight as the senses they use are mainly smell and hearing. This close up image of Dante's left eye illustrates how the cataract is obscuring his vision.
Images that require improvement
I have used a couple of locations to capture images including roads, and grassy areas. These were all local areas around Church Langley where I live or at a centre where I volunteer. I have also enlisted the help of someone to act as my subject to illustrate a visually impaired person walking with the aid of a white stick.
For the images involved in the sensory experience of being short-sighted, this was particularly relevant to me, as I am short-sighted and without my glasses when I look at the world it is out of focus and everything at a distance looks blurred. Only close up objects are sharply in focus. I wanted to capture this personal sensory experience of looking at the world through spectacles and how this enables me to have quality vision and puts my world into sharp focus. Having the ability to focus your vision is something that we often take for granted and for people who do not need to wear glasses then this may be something that they have little thought about. Without glasses my sensory experience of the world, as well as that of many others, would be massively limited.
My Cocker Spaniel dog Dante is 12 years old and has developed cataracts in his eyes. This means that parts of his vision are obscured. The vet said that dogs adapt well to restrictions in their sight as the senses they use are mainly smell and hearing. This close up image of Dante's left eye illustrates how the cataract is obscuring his vision.
I then took a number of different images with my model walking using a white stick as though visually impaired.
My Best images
I had an idea that I would like an image to illustrate how a visually impaired person who relies on a white stick experiences objects immediately in front of them. I took the image looking down at my models feet as though from the eyes of the person. I wanted to capture the idea that their restricted vision limits how far they can experience the world in front of them. My idea was that once I had obtained a reasonable image I could then introduce objects into the image such as others people legs, kerbs, dogs etc. But I was not that happy with the initial image I obtained. I tried varying the angle slightly to see if I could improve it, but it just looks odd. My intension now is to change the perspective of the shot and take it more from the side so that it will be more like the view of another person walking alongside them. In this way I can incorporate more of the subject not just part of their foot into the image, as well as highlight the obstacles in their path which they have to feel for with the white stick to know they are there.
AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.
In this shoot, I am focusing on sensory experiences that have been affected by a reduction in the functioning of their sight. I will focus on three situations, where a person is:
1) Visually impaired 2) Short sighted 3) Long sighted
I will also highlight the aids we use to attempt to restore or adapt to the loss of sensation and which allow people to experience the many sensory experiences the world has to offer but perhaps in a different way.
1) Visually impaired 2) Short sighted 3) Long sighted
I will also highlight the aids we use to attempt to restore or adapt to the loss of sensation and which allow people to experience the many sensory experiences the world has to offer but perhaps in a different way.
Sight is our most important sense, if you consider this to be according to the amount of brain matter dedicated to it. Vision occupies 30% of the cortex, touch 8% and hearing only 3% so on this basis sight is the key sense for us to experience the world around us. For people who are visually impaired several techniques have been developed to help them with various experiences. Braille is a tactile writing system that enables people with serious visual impairments to read and write. It can even be used, with the right technology, on computer screens. It uses characters arranged in blocks called cells that have small raised dots and the arrangement and number of dots is how different characters are told apart. This is done using a tactile method as they glide their finger over these raised dots.
I have made use of a tactile Braille Mother’s Day card to illustrate the sensory experience blind or partially sighted people have when they read using Braille. For them they read with their fingers rather than their eyes. The image captures someone reading the characters of raised dots on the page using their sense of touch and by running their finger over them. The message on this card reads ‘With love on Mother’s Day’. Reading this way is a skill which has to be learned and by focusing in closely on the characters written in Braille I have emphasised the tactile method involved. By filling the entire frame I have removed all background distractions from the image. This gives the activity being shown more focus and makes it more intimate and personal. In the image the tip of the person’s finger is caught as it gently runs along the second line of text. Using close cropping I have focused attention on both the text and this finger, then to further direct attention to the exact part of the finger where the sensory information is being drawn from I have used the technique of a narrow depth of field.
ISO:200
F-stop: f/3.2
Shutter speed: 1/640s
In this way, only the small area around the fingertip is in sharp focus while the rest of the finger, the majority of it is blurred. By making the image so close up this makes the experience more intimate and as little of the person is shown then the viewer can add their own personal perspective on the image by perhaps remembering someone they know who has problems with their vision.
ISO:200
F-stop: f/3.2
Shutter speed: 1/640s
In this way, only the small area around the fingertip is in sharp focus while the rest of the finger, the majority of it is blurred. By making the image so close up this makes the experience more intimate and as little of the person is shown then the viewer can add their own personal perspective on the image by perhaps remembering someone they know who has problems with their vision.
I used my light box to take these image so was able to adjust the position of the page until I got a good angle of perspective to capture the best three dimensional quality of the raised dots on it. Capturing the form of the dots allows the viewers to perceive their tactile feel and place themselves in the position as if they were themselves running their finger over the page and experiencing the sensation of the elevated dots. I think this image is effective in capturing the sensory experience of touch and how it is a way people can use to adapt to be able to read without having good vision. I think I could have improved this image if I had an entire page of Braille writing as the numerous dots on the page would really enhance the perception of the tactile nature visually impaired people are experiencing.
AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.
The camera I used is my Nikon D5300 DSLR, and I have set it up on my tripod to take the shots in as many images as was possible. For the camera settings, I set the ISO as low as possible in order to prevent noise and in order to capture details in sharp focus I chose a smaller aperture and a wider depth of field setting. Except in the image where I specifically wanted a narrow depth of field.
In some of the images I used a small light box that I had bought to allow me to better control the lighting, and the setup of this is illustrated in the diagram below. The light box was particularly useful for capturing the tactile quality of the Braille writing.
To highlight the sensory experience being affected I have included the use of several props such as a tactile Braille Mother's Day card, a long white stick used by the visually impaired, a yellow fluorescent dog bib as used by service dogs, spectacles for the long and for short-sighted and a book to illustrate their use.
I have used a couple of locations to capture images including roads, and grassy areas. These were all local areas around Church Langley where I live or at a centre where I volunteer. I have also enlisted the help of someone to act as my subject to illustrate a visually impaired person walking with the aid of a white stick.
For the images involved in the sensory experience of being short-sighted, this was particularly relevant to me, as I am short-sighted and without my glasses when I look at the world it is out of focus and everything at a distance looks blurred. Only close up objects are sharply in focus. I wanted to capture this personal sensory experience of looking at the world through spectacles and how this enables me to have quality vision and puts my world into sharp focus. Having the ability to focus your vision is something that we often take for granted and for people who do not need to wear glasses then this may be something that they have little thought about. Without glasses my sensory experience of the world, as well as that of many others, would be massively limited.
To illustrate this photographically I decided to create a composite image by merging several images. I took landscape images of a view of my front garden and the street behind it, I did this using a wide and a narrow depth of field so that in the first image everything is sharply in focus and in the second everything is blurred. In another image (image three) I have held up my glasses in front of the camera and have narrowed the depth of field of the camera to focus specifically around this part of the frame. This means that the rest of the image not in this plane of field is blurred. When combining the images to create a composite one (image 4) it can be seen that the landscape viewed through the lens of the glasses is clearly in focus while that out with the lens is blurred. This represents how being short-sighted affects your sensory experience of the world and how it can be adjusted back to normal by wearing glasses. I really like this image but if I were to repeat it I would try to find a more interesting landscape to have my subject looking at. This would make the image more captivating and accentuate the effect of the glasses on the sensory experience. I do think the fact that I have a car captured within the image highlights the importance of being able to see clearly, as it would be dangerous to not be able to see cars approaching you along the road. That could be something I could develop in later images to illustrate the importance of having good distance sight. It allows you to see danger approaching.
The composite image below is the one created by merging part of the images shown above. I think by using this technique I have effectively conveyed the sensory experience of being short-sighted and how glasses can drastically improve your visual sensory experience.
In both the above image of the spectacles and the view through them as well as the view through the reading spectacles below I was inspired to create such images by the photographer Lee Friedlander. His work depicts the normal chaos of life on the streets of America including images of shops, cars, adverts etc. However he adds his own creative element by incorporating his fascination with reflection and framing into his images. He does this by taking the shots through car or shop windows or by using the reflections in mirrors or glass. In doing this he makes his images more intriguing as you wonder how he has created such compositions using reflections. While his framing of his subjects directs your attention to where he wants it to be. I really enjoy studying Friedlander's work and it has inspired me to use the techniques of reflection and framing in my own project to emphasise and direct the viewers to what I want them to focus on in my images.
In this image I illustrate the sensory experience of being able to read a book when you are long sighted. Needing to wear reading glasses particularly as your eyesight deteriorates with age is something many people will experience. So this image should connect with older people through their own personal associations with no longer being able to read text without the aid of glasses. In the image I have composed it so that a hand is holding the glasses up in front of the text in the book. The viewer has an image looking through the lenses of the glasses and can see that the text there is larger and so much easier to read than the text in the rest of the page. For this image I focused the camera around the lenses of the glasses so that the text would be really clear here while the rest of the text is slightly more blurred and smaller so harder to read. By presenting the effect in a single image with the different text juxtaposition will effectively convey the transformation that glasses have on the sensory experience of reading. Friedlander’s work with its focus on reflection and framing inspired me to consider representing visual perception in this way. The framing acts as a barrier between the two different visual experiences and so separates them as well as highlighting and drawing the viewer’s attention to that smaller part of the frame. The framing therefore enables me to focus attention to where I want it. While the reflection of the text through the glass of the spectacles enlarges it allowing the reader to see it. This effect is clearly visible and obvious to the viewer, and I have placed the spectacles along a line of thirds to help focus their attention here.
AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.
In this shoot, my intension was to capture images of sensory experiences that have been affected by a reduction in a particular sense function that of sight. I focused on three situations with the subject being:
1) Visually impaired 2) Short sighted 3) Long sighted
I additionally wanted to highlight the aids we use to attempt to restore or adapt to the loss of sensation and which allow people to experience the many sensory experiences the world has to offer but perhaps in a different way, such as spectacles for both the long and short-sighted, braille writing, white sticks and service dogs.
In this shoot, my intension was to capture images of sensory experiences that have been affected by a reduction in a particular sense function that of sight. I focused on three situations with the subject being:
1) Visually impaired 2) Short sighted 3) Long sighted
I additionally wanted to highlight the aids we use to attempt to restore or adapt to the loss of sensation and which allow people to experience the many sensory experiences the world has to offer but perhaps in a different way, such as spectacles for both the long and short-sighted, braille writing, white sticks and service dogs.
I believe I have achieved this objective as I have shown images capturing the sensory experience of being:
1) Short-sighted: I created a composite image using glasses and a landscape view and illustrate how the glasses lenses sharpen the blurred perspective
2) Long-sighted: Using text from a book and the technique of narrow depth of field I illustrated how the text was so much sharper and easier to read when viewed through the lens.
3) Blind/partial vision impairment: I used a prop, a white stick, to indicate the sensory impairment to viewers. Using a white stick is something people instantly recognise and it tells them that the user is visually impaired in some way.
This image visually conveys the sensory experience a visually impaired person must contend with. The model has the long white stick in front of them and will use it to feel for objects that are physically in their way and they could trip or fall over, such as the small white logs on either side of the road. They also use the stick to determine differences in surfaces such as between the grass and the tarmac. By positioning the camera behind the model I have tried to allow the viewer to see the objects and difficulties in the way that the person must make their way through. I have also used a road with a T junction, this was to visually show that if the model continues to walk in a straight line they will come to the end of the road at the wooden fence. We can see that it extends in two directions left and right but they cannot, so will have to use their white stick to determine how the road continues. By showing the difficulties of a scene, even a simple one like this, it allows the viewer to walk in the shoes of a partially sighted /blind person to feel how differently they experience the world without sight.
This image visually conveys the sensory experience a visually impaired person must contend with. The model has the long white stick in front of them and will use it to feel for objects that are physically in their way and they could trip or fall over, such as the small white logs on either side of the road. They also use the stick to determine differences in surfaces such as between the grass and the tarmac. By positioning the camera behind the model I have tried to allow the viewer to see the objects and difficulties in the way that the person must make their way through. I have also used a road with a T junction, this was to visually show that if the model continues to walk in a straight line they will come to the end of the road at the wooden fence. We can see that it extends in two directions left and right but they cannot, so will have to use their white stick to determine how the road continues. By showing the difficulties of a scene, even a simple one like this, it allows the viewer to walk in the shoes of a partially sighted /blind person to feel how differently they experience the world without sight.
Progression
I intend in a later shoot to take additional images of a person walking with a white stick but use the technique of a narrow depth of field or possibly photoshop to refine the above images so that areas of it are blurred. This will visually convey how their vision could be affected and by blurring the area in from of them this will convey the landscape that visually impaired people must navigate through. I will also try to compose images of a blind person using a service dog to guide them. This will highlight how dogs can be trained to be used as an aid to act as the person's eyes and see for them in some ways.
In my next shoot, I will move onto the next part of sensory experiences that I want to explore. That of extreme sensory experiences. These are found when an animal has adapted a particular sense beyond what is normal compared to other animals. In doing this is gives it an advantage to survive and reproduce passing on its extreme sensory ability to its offspring.
Through my own interest in biology and the senses of animals and reptiles, I have obtained some knowledge of the biology of certain animals super-sensory abilities. I have then further researched some of these particular abilities to highlight and illustrate how fascinating the are using photography. The sensory experiences I will capture images of in the next shoot will be that of smell and taste and of touch.
Through my own interest in biology and the senses of animals and reptiles, I have obtained some knowledge of the biology of certain animals super-sensory abilities. I have then further researched some of these particular abilities to highlight and illustrate how fascinating the are using photography. The sensory experiences I will capture images of in the next shoot will be that of smell and taste and of touch.
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