Press Release issued: 23 June 2012.
A new exhibition of photographs by blind and partially sighted amateur photographers opens at the Circus Bistro in Edinburgh on Saturday.
The exhibition consists of 12 photographs of nature taken by people with a range of different sight loss conditions. Each has submitted two examples of their work.
The Revealed Visually Impaired Photographic Group first began three years ago and meets monthly at the Edinburgh headquarters of sight loss charity RNIB Scotland.
One of the members, Rita Simpson (62) from West Pilton Place, developed tunnel vision that significantly narrowed her field of vision 13 years ago. She now has only 13 per cent vision.
"One of the things we want to challenge in our work is the idea that people with sight loss can't be creative in the visual arts," she explains. "We want the public to be more prepared to think outside the box regarding what those with sight loss can do.
"Of course, it's more difficult for us to take good photos. My visual impairment, for example, means I can only focus on things in my central field of vision, which sometimes makes composition difficult. I just see the outline of shapes. So I tend to do more close-up shots than landscapes.
"But Sam Rutherford, our volunteer tutor who is a professional photographer in Edinburgh, helps us with things like checking the camera settings and focus. It can be difficult, but comparing what you think you can see in the viewfinder and the final photograph is sometimes fascinating."
Rita, who began to lose her sight over 17 years ago, spent most of her working life as a hairdresser in Edinburgh. "But I've always been interested in art and creative things. And what I love about our photographic group is the company and the outings. We always have a good laugh. It's a good not stuck in the house. It boosts morale."
The photos in the exhibition will be for sale as postcards or as notelets. But Rita insists the group will be more interested in the feedback they receive by visitors to the exhibition (a comments book will be available in the gallery).
"We genuinely would be interested in hearing what people think about the photos, and whether their own perceptions of sight loss have changed," Rita says.
As well as Rita, the show celebrates the work of local people Andreas Gartner, Anne Henderson, Fiona Powell, Alan McIntyre and Anne Dignan. All were new to photography when they joined the photographic group.
Accompanying each photo will be a tactile interpretation of it made by Sam Rutherford. These represent the image by changes in texture of ink on paper, to give people with no sight at all a sense of its composition and tones.
Rita says: "Sam worked closely with each photographer to discover what they wanted their photographs to say. She then set about creating the essence of each photo in such a way that it can be more easily understood by visually disabled audiences and everyone else who experiences the exhibition."
Sam Rutherford said: "I've learned so much, myself, especially in doing the tactile versions of the photos on exhibition. I'd never worked in that medium before. It's been incredibly rewarding to work with such creative and diverse people. They all have such strong ideas of what they want to convey in their photographs."
The exhibition will run until 23 July at the Circus Bistro, 18 St Mary's Street, Edinburgh EH1 1SD.