Diego
04-06-2006, 09:41
"I never get angry when people challenge me to take a picture of them on the spot," said Tan Li, a 33-year-old blind photographer from Yangzhou of Jiangsu Province, during a recent interview with CCTV. "Because I am doing something that I am not supposed to be able to do."
Tan was eight when he was blinded in an accident. He grew up to be a blind massage doctor and ran a small massage clinic of his own in the city, a conventional way of living made by many people who are visually impaired.
Eight years ago, he met Zhang Xianchen, a freelance photographer based in Yangzhou, who came to Tan's clinic for massage treatment for his back pain. Greatly impressed by Tan's openness and readiness to learn, Zhang challenged him to have a try with a camera.
The idea of a blind guy taking photos really cracked Tan up. With a manual-focus camera given by Zhang, Tan asked his wife and daughter to take him out in the park on a Sunday afternoon.
That day he made eighteen "perfect" pictures out of the thirty-six when his first roll of film was developed, and the result gave him confidence.
"If you are blind, you have to be sharp enough to sense the things around, such as the echo of the sound and the warmth of the light," Tan said. "You have to be really willing to give yourself over to your imagination as you are working in another world."
In 2000, his picture "A trip to Yangzhou in March" won him an award of honor, while competing with other works of sighted photographers for the city's travel photo contest.
However, it wasn't until he attended the Sixth National Sitting Volleyball Games for disabled women, which were held in Yangzhou in 2003, that he became dedicated to the business of "blind" photography.
"It was the second half of the match. The audience had left and no journalists and media photographers were left to cheer for the disabled players," Tan said. "Nobody actually cared about the result, but the thumps on the floor made by the women athletes when spiking really stirred my soul."
From then on, Tan started to take pictures through the eye of his camera to express his ideas, his own experiences and his imagination. Articles in the clinic, and toys of his daughter, etc, all became the images of his pictures.
His work "It's me who bites a dog," which was self-photographed, gives the impression that he enjoys any challenge.
Tan said: "Some photo critics say I am the blind cat that happened to catch a lively mouse, and I want to show them the blind cat is truly doing well."
So what's next?
"A photo album through the eyes of the blind," Tan said seriously. "I can always see things that sighted people cannot see."
Through the eyes of the blind, Tan Li is influencing the way we sighted people see the world.
I jeszcze z gazwyba: http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/1,60935,3393151.html
Kurcze, kiedyś mnie to prześladowało, a co jeśli oślepne, co komu po niewidomym fotografie ? Ale jak widać dla człowieka nie ma barier. Jesteśmy dziwnym gatunkiem :shock: . Podziwiam pana Tana - co za determinacja;
Czy znalazł ktoś jego galerię - mi się nie udało.
Tan was eight when he was blinded in an accident. He grew up to be a blind massage doctor and ran a small massage clinic of his own in the city, a conventional way of living made by many people who are visually impaired.
Eight years ago, he met Zhang Xianchen, a freelance photographer based in Yangzhou, who came to Tan's clinic for massage treatment for his back pain. Greatly impressed by Tan's openness and readiness to learn, Zhang challenged him to have a try with a camera.
The idea of a blind guy taking photos really cracked Tan up. With a manual-focus camera given by Zhang, Tan asked his wife and daughter to take him out in the park on a Sunday afternoon.
That day he made eighteen "perfect" pictures out of the thirty-six when his first roll of film was developed, and the result gave him confidence.
"If you are blind, you have to be sharp enough to sense the things around, such as the echo of the sound and the warmth of the light," Tan said. "You have to be really willing to give yourself over to your imagination as you are working in another world."
In 2000, his picture "A trip to Yangzhou in March" won him an award of honor, while competing with other works of sighted photographers for the city's travel photo contest.
However, it wasn't until he attended the Sixth National Sitting Volleyball Games for disabled women, which were held in Yangzhou in 2003, that he became dedicated to the business of "blind" photography.
"It was the second half of the match. The audience had left and no journalists and media photographers were left to cheer for the disabled players," Tan said. "Nobody actually cared about the result, but the thumps on the floor made by the women athletes when spiking really stirred my soul."
From then on, Tan started to take pictures through the eye of his camera to express his ideas, his own experiences and his imagination. Articles in the clinic, and toys of his daughter, etc, all became the images of his pictures.
His work "It's me who bites a dog," which was self-photographed, gives the impression that he enjoys any challenge.
Tan said: "Some photo critics say I am the blind cat that happened to catch a lively mouse, and I want to show them the blind cat is truly doing well."
So what's next?
"A photo album through the eyes of the blind," Tan said seriously. "I can always see things that sighted people cannot see."
Through the eyes of the blind, Tan Li is influencing the way we sighted people see the world.
I jeszcze z gazwyba: http://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/1,60935,3393151.html
Kurcze, kiedyś mnie to prześladowało, a co jeśli oślepne, co komu po niewidomym fotografie ? Ale jak widać dla człowieka nie ma barier. Jesteśmy dziwnym gatunkiem :shock: . Podziwiam pana Tana - co za determinacja;
Czy znalazł ktoś jego galerię - mi się nie udało.