Blind Photography – Shooting Without Seeing Anything

Have you ever thought about shooting without using your vision? This is my story of an unexpected day in a small garden in Curitiba (Brazil). An amazing experience made more remarkable by Lomography!

I was introduced to Lomography only a few months ago, but my Diana Mini (my first camera) and I certainly have lived some remarkable moments together! One of them was during a trip to Curitiba with a classmate. We went to this beautiful city for a conference, but, as it should be, we took the opportunity to visit other sites. For example, to the famous “Jardim Botânico” (or Botanical Gardens, in english).

Walking there, we found a little garden especially made for people with visual impairments: the “garden of the sensations”. My friend has a significant degree of visual impairment, wich means that when we’re together I often play the role of guide – talking about the paths and obstacles – especially in unknown places. So, when I read the text on the entrance to the garden, she immediately told me her proposal:
– “Let’s enter! And this time I’ll guide you. You can even shoot with your camera, and we can see how the pictures turn out!”

I immediately agreed. But when the caretaker explained how the visit works (with blindfolds and very interesting ways of exploring) my friend thought it was so cool that she decided to give up seeing something and entered completely blind too. The result: We both were blindfolded, walking among the plants and guessing frames and focal lenths for the pictures.

Maybe these were the pictures that made me more anxious to go to the laboratory to see the results. In my opinion, it was worth the wait! And if you want to see more pictures, go to my Lomohome – the album is Blind Lomography in The Sensation Garden.

We also had a digital camera, but we though that Diana Mini was more interesting to the adventure. My friend also shot some pictures and she wasn’t used to the Diana Mini. She didn’t wind the film after a click, so we have some accidental double exposures in the end that I liked a lot. The extra unexpected!

The Diana Mini is the ultra-compact, petite version of the Diana F+. This camera takes soft-focused, lo-fi images in 35mm and allows you to change between half-format and square shots with a flick of a switch. Get your own Diana Mini now!

written by _rebecca on 2011-11-30 #lifestyle #blind #diana #diana-mini #curitiba #jardim-botanico #blind-photography #jardim-da-sensacoes #fotografia-cega