The story behind

Blindfold Photography

This concept was goes back to my junior college days at Everygreen (EVC).  I was taking an introductory photography class from Nichols and Brad.  These guys had a photojournalism background had numerous images published with the major and local newspapers. 

During the course of the semester, we were assigned to re-create an image from a news publication.  I was asked to join a small group and worked together to achieve each other’s image.  The four of us ended up working together on the remainder of the projects for that semester. 

We hung out for summer break, pushing and encouraging each other to do silly photography projects here and there.  While we are out on one of our photography outings; Annie, Daisy and Jane challenged me to ‘burn a roll of 36’ (traditional film), blindfolded.  The emphasis was ‘a life without sight’…only relying on the other senses.  Seemed ridiculous at the time but it kinda ‘opened my eyes’. 

It didn’t make much sense holding the viewfinder to my eye.  Sooo… I started snapping…

All I had to go off of was the sound, touch and smell…and it didn’t help that there were three girls laughing at me.  The sand between my toes, the breeze, the sound of the waves washing up on the shore (and I think, the smell of BBQ), helped me direct this strange experiment. 

At my apartment, I had a make shift darkroom in the bathroom (yes, I did properly dispose of the chemistry in a responsible fashion).  Daisy and I were developing our images when I pulled the negatives from the dryer and reviewed them.  Aside from being flashed by my friends, the rest of the roll was very impressive. 

I was lucky enough to show my work from this experiment at an art gallery for local photographers.  Daisy and Jane were also displaying their work as well.  From this gallery showing, I received numerous compliments and positive feedback that pushed me even further to see what I can do with the camera.