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How blind photographers visualize the world

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Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#11

Post by lacrimacida »

haswell wrote: post #8
enugu wrote: post #2

There is also this recently discovered phenomena of aphantasia which is fascinating. Lot of people dont have mental images and grow up not even aware that others can form such images. Here's one interesting account. https://m.facebook.com/nt/screen/?params=%7B%22note_id%22%3A...

I discovered I have this by reading an article about it in Scientific American. It completely blew my mind. I thought “visualizing” was a figure of speech, and was shocked to realize that people actually form images in their mind. I’m also a photographer, and pre-visualizing shots in my mind doesn’t happen the way I’ve heard others describe their process. I immerse myself in the scene, taking everything in as fully a…

As as painter with aphantantasia myself I have a similar experience to yours and do find my own experience to be interesting and not lacking in any way, though it’s impossible to make the comparsion to non aphantasiacs. I feel that I do have an imagination and mind’s eye in my own way somehow connected to intuition, hard to describe into words but it’s like there’s a vail that obstructs the minds eye but I can feel what’s behind it. When I paint I am excited to see what emerges as if the veil is slowly dissolving.

One thing that I have a hard time with as an aphantasiac is mostly reading books with extensive descriptive imagery, lots of minitious details…

Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#12

Post by vidarh »

haswell wrote: post #8
enugu wrote: post #2

There is also this recently discovered phenomena of aphantasia which is fascinating. Lot of people dont have mental images and grow up not even aware that others can form such images. Here's one interesting account. https://m.facebook.com/nt/screen/?params=%7B%22note_id%22%3A...

I discovered I have this by reading an article about it in Scientific American. It completely blew my mind. I thought “visualizing” was a figure of speech, and was shocked to realize that people actually form images in their mind. I’m also a photographer, and pre-visualizing shots in my mind doesn’t happen the way I’ve heard others describe their process. I immerse myself in the scene, taking everything in as fully a…

Same here. Also thought it was a figure of speech. Though I often think of myself as visualizing things, it's more of a spatial awareness and recollection of attributes, never actually visual.

Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#13

Post by vidarh »

KMag wrote: post #7
enugu wrote: post #2

There is also this recently discovered phenomena of aphantasia which is fascinating. Lot of people dont have mental images and grow up not even aware that others can form such images. Here's one interesting account. https://m.facebook.com/nt/screen/?params=%7B%22note_id%22%3A...

A few years ago, my wife and I figured out she has aphantasia. Suddenly, it made sense why she has trouble with navigating, why I have to draw things for her so often rather than just explaining the shapes of the various parts and how they fit together, and also why she finds reading most books so boring. When she reads a book, any description of how things look just goes in one ear and out the other. When walking ar…

I have aphantasia, but significantly above average spatial reasoning. I'm not convinced those things are straightforwardly connected.

Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#14

Post by lacrimacida »

tapper wrote: post #6

As a blind man this sounds like a load of BS to me! I have bin blind from berth and would have know want or need to invest all this time on something I can not see to enjoy the end product. How would you know which pics arr the rite ones? How can you show them to people when you cant even know what is on the piece of paper you are holding in your hand. If you put a pile of 10 pieces of paper in my hand and marked a l…

Could you describe into words how your mind works, how imagery is rendered in your mind’s eye and how you perceive the world around you? Also, do you have a mind’s eye like non aphantasiacs do? I suspect not all blind people perceive the world in the same way just like the non blind.

Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#15

Post by boondoggle16 »

tapper wrote: post #6

As a blind man this sounds like a load of BS to me! I have bin blind from berth and would have know want or need to invest all this time on something I can not see to enjoy the end product. How would you know which pics arr the rite ones? How can you show them to people when you cant even know what is on the piece of paper you are holding in your hand. If you put a pile of 10 pieces of paper in my hand and marked a l…

Heh, I noticed there's no image gallery with the post. As a disabled person myself, this trite puppy-care is really not great.

Edit: I found some. The photos are actually pretty great.

And yes, they are not blind, they are vision impaired. Never understood why people call that blind, seems a bit shitty to people who are actually completely blind.

I'm not a paraplegic just because my knees hurt when I walk.

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/06/30/check-out-blind-phot...

Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#17

Post by guardian5x »

enugu wrote: post #2

There is also this recently discovered phenomena of aphantasia which is fascinating. Lot of people dont have mental images and grow up not even aware that others can form such images. Here's one interesting account. https://m.facebook.com/nt/screen/?params=%7B%22note_id%22%3A...

What does the link say? (for people without facebook account)

Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#18

Post by tapper »

lacrimacida wrote: post #14
tapper wrote: post #6

As a blind man this sounds like a load of BS to me! I have bin blind from berth and would have know want or need to invest all this time on something I can not see to enjoy the end product. How would you know which pics arr the rite ones? How can you show them to people when you cant even know what is on the piece of paper you are holding in your hand. If you put a pile of 10 pieces of paper in my hand and marked a l…

Could you describe into words how your mind works, how imagery is rendered in your mind’s eye and how you perceive the world around you? Also, do you have a mind’s eye like non aphantasiacs do? I suspect not all blind people perceive the world in the same way just like the non blind.

OK here goes. Pleas don't mind the spelling.

I was born with glaucoma and had both my eyes removed when I was 2.5 years old.

I cant remember being able to see, but I can remember wearing verry thick glasses. They made my nose ake.

I cant remember what things look like or cullers.

If someone asked me to think about something like a beach I would think about how it would feel under my hands - feet to be on the sand, the sound of the see and the smell of the see. I would all so think about the feel of wind and sun on my skin. Because you have to be in motion to feel things with your hands I would think about all this as if I was walking a cross it. If I am asked to picture somthing simple like a cup or a plate I will remember what one feels like in my hands. When I have dreams I have ones that have all the other censes in them but no site. I have verry strong emotions in them and some dreams can stick with me for a long time. It's strange as I am not like that in my waking life. I don't think that has anything to do with me being blind though.

Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#19

Post by ravishi »

vidarh wrote: post #13
KMag wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few years ago, my wife and I figured out she has aphantasia. Suddenly, it made sense why she has trouble with navigating, why I have to draw things for her so often rather than just explaining the shapes of the various parts and how they fit together, and also why she finds reading most books so boring. When she reads a book, any description of how things look just goes in one ear and out the other. When walking ar…

I have aphantasia, but significantly above average spatial reasoning. I'm not convinced those things are straightforwardly connected.

Same. My brother doesn't have aphantasia, but he has some kind of "spatial dyslexia" as we call it. Not diagnosed, he just has really hard time thinking about spatial stuff, drawing and writing (related to the form of his "typeface", not to spelling).

Re: How blind photographers visualize the world

#20

Post by alanbernstein »

guardian5x wrote: post #17
enugu wrote: post #2

There is also this recently discovered phenomena of aphantasia which is fascinating. Lot of people dont have mental images and grow up not even aware that others can form such images. Here's one interesting account. https://m.facebook.com/nt/screen/?params=%7B%22note_id%22%3A...

What does the link say? (for people without facebook account)

It's quite long, and fascinating. I'm able to view it in a private browser tab, so I don't think it requires an account.
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