A study on the relationship between photography and blindness in the context of a/r/tography

Abstract

This article describes a photography project in the context of a/r/tography as an Arts-Based Research (ABR) methodology, in order to discover the connections between photography and blindness. Those pictures taken under blind perception invite us to discover another conception of visuality and therefore to enrich our own perception. Thanks to an affiliation with the ONCE (Spanish National Organisation for the Blind) and its Madrid Regional Office for Department of Culture, which kindly enabled us to work with blind and visually impaired people, we performed a range of project work within the blind community. One such project comprised designing a photography workshop as a collaborative learning setting for blind people. We carried out different activities involving reading and creating pictures, in which, each participant assumes the role of spectator and creator, where images and words interrelate. Photographs turn into visual narratives spun through an experience. Their words give voice to the sets of images, creating some extraordinary readings. Photographs taken by blind people reveal how a visual creation can be a means of communication between those who see and those who do not.