Pete Eck­ert is a blind visu­al artist. He was diag­nosed with Retini­tis Pig­men­tosa, and lost his sight when he was 28.

via Liv­ing Design and Pho­to­jo­jo.

“I am only a tourist in the sight­ed world. Women talk about a glass ceil­ing. Blind folks face a glass front door. We can look into the work­place but aren’t allowed to enter. I do some­thing else. I slip pho­tos under the door from the world of the blind to be viewed in the light of the sight­ed. I view my work dur­ing the event of tak­ing the shot in my minds eye. I “see“ each shot very clear­ly, only I use sound, touch, and mem­o­ry. I am more of a con­cep­tu­al artist than a pho­tog­ra­ph­er. My influ­ences come from my past mem­o­ry of art and what I now find in the world at large. I now ask to touch sculp­tures in muse­ums too. That’s anoth­er long story.

“I am try­ing to cut a new path as a blind visu­al artist. Sight­ed peo­ple don’t help me make the art. They do give me feed­back before I do the final large prints… I want sight­ed peo­ple involved. It is a good bridge between the blind and sight­ed. I want to be includ­ed in the world and accept­ed.

“It is impor­tant to me that the sight­ed think about blindness. What I get out of tak­ing pho­tos is the event not the pic­ture. I do the large prints to get sight­ed peo­ple think­ing. Talk­ing with peo­ple in gal­leries builds a bridge between my mind’s eye and their vision of my work. Occa­sion­al­ly peo­ple refuse to believe I am blind. I am a visu­al per­son. I just can’t see.”

 

I saw this today, for which I am thankful.