Being the art of capturing light, does photography mean anything to the millions who live in complete darkness? Even the most optimistic among us would have our doubts. Not so Partho Bhowmik. His not-for-profit organisation, Beyond Sight Foundation, takes the art of photography to India’s visually impaired. “When a blind person touches a cup, he is also seeing it with their mind’s eye,” explains Bhowmik, who initiated the project “Blind with Camera”.
Bhowmik, who works in the corporate sector, was transferred to Mumbai from Kolkata, his hometown, in 1999. “I came to Mumbai purely for professional reasons, but Bombay as it was known then has a tremendous ability to grip an individual and make him feel at home. Slowly, I started to get into the social circles of Mumbai, and as photography had always been a passion, I started visiting the Photographic Society of India. And one day my book vendor called to inform that there was this new book which I should check.”
Although Partho did not buy that book, he happen to lay his hands on an old issue of “Times Journal of Photography” that carried a story on Evgen Bavcar, one of the world’s most well-known blind photographers. “As a photographer, I had even exhibited my photographs of reflections but this was phenomenal. I was intrigued, deeply interested to know more about this kind of photography.” That was the beginning of a long phase of gaining newer understanding about the art. Bhowmik got in touch with Bavcar and a host of other blind photographers to learn how they take photos.
The project “Blind with a Camera” started to crystallise in Bhowmik’s mind — he could visualise starting a workshop and seeing the world through the eyes of the blind people. But quite predictably, he faced endless questions but he was prepared; “Even I had initial doubts in my mind. So it’s natural that others would have them too.”
A few months later he got a call from the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind. The school gave students and infrastructure; Kodak gave cameras and film rolls; and he was ready to take on the challenge.
“Quite a challenge,” admits Bhowmik. “It meant adapting ways to communicate the process of creation. The idea was to prove that photographs could be shot by the mind as much as by the eye. Their pictures are their point of view, a reflection of their experience of reality and anchored to what they feel. I taught myself from zero ... The results were surprising.”
To start with, there was only one student, Mahesh Umrannia, but now there are 80. “In one of my first exhibitions, hardly anyone from the students’ family came. When I asked them why, they said they didn’t find it surprising.” Bhowmik recalls. “The blind are considered a burden to the family and are dumped by society. Just a remark by parents or loved ones such as how the blind could possibly take pictures can keep a student away from class. Some students experienced this but they returned after a gap, but this is the perennial obstacle.”
At the workshop, the participants learn the basics using point-and-shoot in 35mm or SLR cameras. They use tools such as raised images, Braille notes, visual aids and audio descriptions of illustrations to get a feel of subject before they shoot. “During indoor shoots they feel the subject first and then they frame the photograph in the mind before they capture it,” says Bhowmik, who was awarded Karmaveer Puraskaar 2009, the national award for social justice and citizen Action given by the Indian Confederation of NGOs. “For outdoors they use sound, warmth of light and help from friends. Those who had sight for a while rely on visual recollections of the subject. Driven by strong instinct, they place the camera in relation to the object, space and light and click.”
The final composition, the “thoughtfully different” picture, depends on their life experience, the extent of blindness, clarity of visual memories, ability to think and judge, and their involvement with the subject. “Understanding of the individual is very critical before even attempting to teach,” Bhowmik says. “Each student’s present condition of sight, memories of times when they could still see (if they were not born blind) and their daily routine. I ask them to describe their house, the layout of objects in it, and their most-loved space at home. I ask them to describe the last new place they visited, faces of parents or loved ones.”
The photographs by people with visual impairment present a inimitable vista of the “inner gallery” of the photographer and serve as a reminder that touch and sound are equally effective ways of understanding the world — as effective as vision. There photographs also require a different approach from the viewer, who must actively participate in understanding the expression of their world, one that is experienced differently at the very elementary level. But why do the blind need to be photographers at all?
“Like all art forms, photography is an extension of an individual,” Bhowmik explains. “Like a normal person, a visually impaired person feels creative and communicative, and most importantly, it gives a feeling of contentment. “Society always wants a disabled person to be independent, primarily financially, but it is also a way of shedding off a burden. But independence doesn’t mean only that. It also means the ability to contribute to art and culture, thereby enriching the society he or she lives in and giving rise to self-esteem,” says Bhowmik, who now wants his students to make photography a profession. “A number of professional photographers are eager to help us. What I am planning to do is to ask some of my more matured students to work under them. Then we will do an exhibition. This will help them both financially and make them better photographers.”
Today, Bhowmik is working on his most ambitious project of getting his students to earn as photographers and also getting the youth of India not to show sympathy to the visually impaired but to give them the support they deserve as fellow citizens.
“Most of the students come from the underprivileged sections of our society. They cannot afford to take up a hobby as costly as photography if there is no financial support,” Bhowmik says. “Whenever a group of students visits a home of those affected, there is lot of sympathy among them. But that is not channelised and it eventually gets lost in the quagmire of careers and a materialistic world.”
So, Bhowmik has been organising workshops to “not only trying to sensitise the youth and future business leaders but also to develop a process where they become instrumental in using the funds of their future organisations to help the blind”. In these workshops participants are blindfolded and for few hours darkness takes over their world. Then the learning begins, where the visually impaired are teachers, and the sighted the students learning to click photos with the help of the mind’s eye.
These workshops have not only generated lot of interest but have also opened up a new horizon for the members of Beyond Sight Foundation — they have started to believe they have a place in society, where they live on equal terms with the rest, without evoking any sympathy.
“We have conducted a number of such workshops in various schools and business colleges all over India. These have not only generated some income for my students but have also helped them believe that they are contributing to society’s understanding of life and making it even richer for their fellow citizens,” says Bhowmik, with a smile.
Archisman Dinda is a journalist based in Kolkata.
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