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ThaJinx
Level 1: 10 points
Alltime Score: 392 points
Last Logged In: April 17th, 2010
30 + 5 points

Seeing Beyond Sight Photo Challenge by ThaJinx

March 13th, 2007 10:28 PM

INSTRUCTIONS: Seeing Beyond Sight has partnered with SFZero to challenge you to see the world differently - with more than your eyes.

Welcome new users: SFZero is an ongoing game in which you can choose to participate (or not) after you do the Seeing Beyond Sight Challenge.

Click here for new user registration.

1. Blindfold yourself.
(wear shades or tape your eyes shut)

2. Go out in public and make your way in the world.
(go 1 block, 1 hour or 1 roll of film; go with a friend or alone; make up your own process)

3. Photograph things you notice. And, just notice.
(What do you notice differently about objects, people, actions, interactions?)

4. Embrace the whole experience as much as the picture taking.
(Engage. Have a conversation with people you encounter. Take it all in.)

5. Share your story.
(For each photograph write a caption about your experience - a few lines or several paragraphs if you want.)

6. Challenge some friends to do it.
(email them the link: sf0.org/seeingbeyondsight)

Please don't post all the pictures from your shoot, but chose 1 to 3 that are the best images or are most telling of your experience. Caption the photos describing something about your experience - that is as important as the image itself. Longer stories are welcomed and may be added to www.seeingbeyondsight.org.

If you depend on your eyes to get around, then it is hard not to use them. Although you can tell us about how difficult it is to be blind, focus more on what you noticed about the world as you embarked on this journey.

This experience isn’t about blindness – it is about seeing, noticing and paying attention with more than your eyes.

This challenge was inspired by SEEING BEYOND SIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHY BY BLIND TEENAGERS, a new book published by Chronicle Books.

Julia and I decided to help each other out with this task, with her making sure I didn't get killed, and vice-versa. We carried out my portion first, starting at the corner of Idaho and 8th Street, which is typically crowded due to a high volume of restaurants and bars centered around that intersection.

I started by exploring the nearby payphones and stoplight, taking pictures in the direction of some faint music across the street before demanding that Julia help me cross in the other direction because I could hear a lot of voices there. I put a hand out upon crossing, and the ring on my finger ran into one of a several public art statues, striking up a really nice metal sound that I really wouldn't expect to hear from them. I tried taking pictures of a lot of the voices I was hearing near the Grape Escape wine bar at the corner, and on the way to the pizza place nextdoor ran into a lightpole; I made sure to try to take a picture of that.

I ended up stumbling onto a bench in front of the Piehole and sat down. Julia let me know that a dog was nearby, but before I could ask to pet it the owners walked off with it. Julia glanced at the camera screen and said it was pretty dark looking, and then I remembered that my camera, an old Canon Powershot A60, was sort of feeling its age. In other words, sometimes it won't get a picture, so you have to slap it around until it can see again. As a result, all the pictures I'd taken up to this point were entirely black. Instead of going down to the end of the block, which we were halfway down at this point, I opted to double back and call it even.

I caught a lot of voices near the wine bar and snapped off a few more shots there, landed a hand on the statues again, and slapped them with my ringed hand again just to hear the noise of them before taking more pictures. We then wandered back to the corner I'd started on, where I took more pictures of passing voices. I could still hear faint music, which was coming from the Balcony across the street, so I took a few pictures in that direction. A few more steps down the street brought me into contact with a fire hydrant; hitting it with my leg caused the chain on it to make a pleasant jingle, so I grabbed around until I found the chain and took a picture of it. About two feet away was a phone booth that I also ran into, so after feeling around on its surface and snapping another picture, I decided the journey was over.

The entire trip took about 45 minutes, at the very least. Julia told me that a lot of people would watch me as they walked by, smiling, but I never heard them say anything, and they didn't seem mocking in any way. I also didn't really mind running into people as much as objects. I knew that people would be able to get out of the way and go around me, so they never crossed my mind; normally I work really hard to dodge traffic and keep out of people's way, so the change seemed notable to me.

Definitely would be up for doing it again. Good times.

EDIT: Resized the photos to more reasonable dimensions; sorry about not doing so initially.

+ larger

Blind
Thanks, Camera
Curb
Piehole Seating Area
Piehole
Grape Escape
Grape Escape
Statue
Statue, Balcony
Statue, Grape Escape
Balcony
Balcony, Crosswalk
Couple
Hydrant
Payphone

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