Photo Gallery 049: The World As Seen By Chinese Non-Visual Photographers

Seeing itself is the intersection of eyes, vision and feelings in the crowd. In TMTpost Photo Gallery 049, we interviewed some non-visual photographers and recorded how they see the life of those invisible light and visible darkness via photography.

Editor’s Note:

"There is division of labor in eyes: part of eyes can see the light, and part of eyes can see the darkness," famous Chinese novelist Bi Feiyu wrote in his novel "Tuina" (which means “massage”) . In 2014, the novel was adapted into a film by director Lou Ye. Basically, the story is about the life, both sorrows and happiness, of a group of blind masseurs. As the novel and the film presented, 90 per cent of the blind people end up becoming masseurs in China. From the first day they enter the message school, their lives will be settled.

However, we learned that the first batch of blind photographers emerged in China as early as 2009. Later, we learned the concept of non-visual photography, which emerged first in Britain, for the first time. However, our question is: how can the blind people become photographers? In TMTpost Photo Gallery 049, we interviewed some non-visual photographers and recorded how they  see the life of those invisible light and visible darkness via photography.

Seeing itself is the intersection of eyes, vision and feelings in the crowd. Wherever we are, the social context we can perceive can also be seen and recorded by the camera; those we can’t see may be ignored by our own obsession. While “blindness” may be the limitation of the visually impaired people, “vision” may also be ordinary people’s limitations. After all, there are similar values beneath differences and defects. The world that non-visual photographers “see” through photography may actually prove to have been largely ignored by us.

Fu Gaoshan is one of the first batch of non-visual photographers in China. Born with visual impairment, his eyesight was less than 0.1. Since birth, the world was blurred to him. To see clearly the smartphone screen, he has to use ten-time magnifying glass. “I can only see a vague outline of other people’s face, so if a colleague comes the second day with a new haircut, I won’t recognize him or her,” he told TMTpost. In 2009, he went to the UK and received non-visual photography training from PhotoVoice.

Fu was teaching his student Li Na to use cameras. He has held non-visual photography training courses across China, from Shanghai, Guangzhou, Langfang to Lasa, etc. and trained over a thousand non-visual photographers. Besides, he’s held non-visual photography exhibition at 798 art zone, Sanlitun and even subway station in Beijing. Moreover, he runs a call center for the blind, which provide new job opportunities for the blind and constantly hold skill train sessions.

With the help of Fu, the blind employee at the call center learned to use voice over software, provide customer service with basic computer operations and even make complicated EXCEL documents.

For Fu, there are even more business opportunities at the call center. He also encounters some problems when he tries to create new job opportunities for the blind.

“Once an insurance company want to recruit a thousand blind employees as telesales personnel. However, I refused, fearing that constantly being turned down by recipients may affect their confidence building. Most enterprise don't know how the blind use computers, so they may worry if they can adapt to their work system. Some enterprise owners even refuse to offer equal salary for equal work when they want to recruit the blind people as customer service personnel,” Fu said.

“In fact, everybody is blind in front of telephones. The blind can not only provide customer service, but are even better in this job. I don’t think that the blind should naturally go out and go to work with blind glasses. Instead, I encourage them to participate in non-visual photography training and do things they’ve never done before to build up their confidence,” he added.

A volunteer was teaching a totally blind student the structure of cameras and helping him get familiar with the functions of different buttons. “The blind people have to overcome their psychological fear and muster up the courage to touch photography for the first time,” Fu explained. When he first came to know photography, he was both curious and excited, just like his new students. “I am not totally blind. In fact, my eyesight is comparatively better than most blind people. Totally blind people are more sensitive to the non-visual dimension than me,” he added.

“Non-visual photography relies on sense except for vision, including hearing, touch and smell, to perceive the outside world. Although the blind people can’t see light, they can sense the direction of light through temperature. When they feel warm in this direction, it must also be the direction of light; when they feel cold, they must be in the darkness,” Fu explained. For him, non-visual photography and photography are basically the same. The only difference is that they rely on different senses, which renders differently. However, they both tests a photographer’s thinking, grasp and feeling of the surrounding social environment.

A totally visually impaired student was practicing how to take pictures. He hold the camera on the forehead to better control the direction of the lens. The closer the camera is, the more accurate he can control the direction. “In the growup process of the blind people, the entire social and family attach lower expectations towards them. Most blind people know when are young that they might go to a massage school when they grow up and become a masseur for a lifetime. They are ridden of the imagination towards life,” Fu wrote once, “The farther I travel, the more times I fall over; the more I fall over, the more I break my ankle, the more I break my ankle, the more skillful I am when going downstairs; the more skillful I am when going downstairs, the more hesitant I become.”

Fu was teaching a student to take pictures for blink tracks. He often hears of reports saying that blink tracks being covered, so that some blind people would fall into pits. However, he knows that the blind actually don’t care if the blind tracks are covered, and he himself never hear of accidents where a blind person falls into pits due to covered tracks. What he tries to do is very simple: conveying the blind people’s message directly to the public through non-visual photography.

Non-visual photographer Li Na, accompanied by his husband Jia Wenjie, was taking photos at night. In fact, photography and travelling have become her life-long hobby, and she already had two years of experience as a non-visual photographer. Born with total visual impairment, Li was highly sensitive to outside lightness and color. In the past, he was a masseuse, just like most blind people; today, she worked as a customer service agent at Fu’s call center. When learning photography, she came up with the idea to take pictures for an old electric fan. Recently, she’s decided to leave the massage industry. In fact, she’s started to learn computers and are looking for new jobs.

Jia was guiding Li to take a picture for an earthworm crawling on the ground. Before he knew Li, he got severely burned in the face in an accident. They came to know each other through a hometown social group, fell in love and at last got married.

Through special scan technology, non-visual photographers can print their photos and feel their works through touch. In the above picture, her husband was describing the scene in the photo for Li. Different from other non-visual photographers, she perceives the outside world through touch and three-dimensional images. However, she never had any specific image in mind. Although photography turns objects into two-dimensional images, it won’t make things more beautiful for her.

After the teacher introduced the special scan printing technology, he asked students what kind of object do they want to grasp through camera. Li Yanshaung answered that she wanted to take a picture for a water drop. With the help of a volunteer, she tries to do so for half an hour. “Every time I open the faucet, the water flushes away. She can’t see, and can’t figure out what water drops look like. Every time she tries to touch it, it just flows away, leaving her cold hand behind,” the volunteer said.

After work, Fu would fetch her daughter from school, play with her or teach her to play piano. When he was young, his parents never restricted his hobby due to visual impairment. He learned to use computers and go to college, just like any other teenager. A loose family environment encourages him to explore new things and do things he really wants to do.

Non-Visual Photography Gallery

Seeing and Being Seen

(Photographed by Fu Gaoshan, visually impaired)

Description: You can’t see what I see. You may be curious why I look so closely, but I see why you are curious.

Starting Point & Terminal

(Photographed by Cai Cong, visually impaired)

Description: This is the starting and terminal bus stop of my everyday work. You may go pass me some day, but you never noticed me. In fact, we are all ordinary member in life.

Conflict

(Photographed by Sun Zhiyuan, visually impaired)

Description: Black and white, brightness and darkness, cold and warm, blind and luminous… they all represent conflicts.

Double World

(Photographed by Sun Zhiyuan, visually impaired)

Description: People who are visually impaired are like the third group of people: they can see, but they can’t see clearly.

First Signature

(Photographed by Shi Yue, totally visually impaired)

Description: There are a good number of blind people who feel helpless when asked to sign names. Look, this is my signature, a signature from a visually-impaired person.

Breath

(Photographed by Sun Zhiyuan, visually impaired)

Description: I hold up my camera to breathe some fresh air in the crowded subway.

Steps

(Photographed by Xu Cheng, totally visually impaired)

Description: I got hit by a car when I was five years old. Maybe due to childhood trauma, I dare not pass the street even I still can vaguely see things.

Love betwen Legs and Stopping Piles

(Photographed by Liang Yixuan, totally visually impaired)

Description: Have you noticed stopping bars? Once I walked pass a stopping bar, my leg and the parking bar ran into each other, “hugged” and even “kissed”, leaving a red “hickey” (scar) in my leg.

Moved by Rear-End Subway Train

(Photographed by Li Yanshuang, visually impaired)

Description: In the past, every time he appeared at the rear end of the subway train, I would often smile; however, when he didn’t appear one day, I wept. Today, as I stand at the rear-end of the subway train, I feel endless regret.

TMTpost Photo Gallery

Special column of TMTpost

Aiming to record individuals and entrepreneurs in the Internet industry

Photos don’t lie, but they don’ tell the whole truth

Photos are free, but also full of traps

This is an Internet age, and we want you to discover stories with us online

……………………………

(Like our Facebook page and follow us now on Twitter @tmtpostenglish and on Medium @TMTpost and on Instagram @tmtpost_english and on Apple News@TMTpost.)

[The article is published and edited with authorization from the author @Zhu Lingyu, please note source and hyperlink when reproduce.]

Translated by Levin Feng (Senior Translator at PAGE TO PAGE), working for TMTpost.

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