BLIND PHOTOGRAPHERS
Rodrigo Telón Yucute listens carefully, raises a camera and takes a picture. He takes a picture of a couple sitting on a bench. He shows the people the picture. Rodrigo asks “Is the picture good?” He is blind, so he doesn’t see the pictures he takes.
Rodrigo is one of thirty people at a photography course in Mexico City. They are all blind. They are working with an organization called “Ojos Que Sienten.” That means Eyes That Feel. Gina Badenoch is the founder of this organization. She is a professional photographer. She is not blind like the students. Students use their senses of hearing, touch, smell, and taste to choose what they want to photograph. They use digital cameras.
Badenoch says that her job is important. She teaches blind people to do difficult things. Some blind people think it is impossible to take photos. They learn that they can do it.
At first, many students think the course is difficult. The arms and legs of people are not in the photos. Students learn to use their senses. They touch objects to understand their shape. They listen to the people to find their place. This helps them to take pictures. The students hold the camera on their foreheads or chests to keep it still.
“My hearing, my smell, all my senses are working when I’m taking a photograph,” says José Antonio Domínguez. He is 49 years old. He has only one helper: his dog. “I love taking photos. My friends say that they are very good” he says.