Blind Photography

Concept:

For my project, I decided to try the blind photography project, since it sounded like it would be a very interesting experience. I wanted to do something that I did on an average, mundane day, but without the use of my vision, and record the experience. In Siegfried Saerberg's article, it mentioned the notion that the sense of touch through the feet is something very important for a blind person, so I took that idea and ran with it. I decided to record myself walking my dog around our neighborhood block blind. To convey the sense of importance in the contact between the ground and our feet, I decided to have the camera at the level of my feet. Since I had no way to take still photographs without stopping and leaning down to my foot, I used video. I think the video captures the actual motion of walking better than a still would anyways.

The actual process didn't work as well as I had hoped. Trying to secure the camera on my leg was hard, and then when I finally started walking, the camera would just fall off after a few steps. The video actually ends where my camera fell off my leg, landed on the lens and broke. So the video doesn't capture the full walk, just a short part. I am pretty pleased with the motion that the video conveys though. Walking blind with my dog, even with the aid of a family member, was pretty hard - my dog's behavior on walks is less than stellar. One thing that I definatly noticed was how useless the handicap ramps on the sidewalk were. They are off to the side of the walk, and without looking, my natural instinct was just to keep walking straight, which was right off the curbs.