Visualising that clicks unseen

There may be nothing great to talk about photography if some X Standard students take it up as a hobby to lighten their preparations for the board exam. But when we are talking about the visually challenged getting involved in a visual art form, it is clearly a challenge that would wow everybody. This is the inspiring tale of Chand Basha, Srikanth, Sai Pawan, Vijay, Pawan and Pawan Kumar -- a group of students of Devnar School for the visually impaired at Begumpet, Hyderabad.

“We have never painted or drawn anything from our childhood as we read and write using Braille and we do not have any visual activity in our school curriculum. But when I clicked for the first time under the guidance of Chandrasekhar Sir, I felt so happy,” shared Chand, one of the visually challenged students and photography learner. They started experiencing the learning process, thanks to a novel initiative taken up by photographer Chandrasekhar Singh M.

“We tend to notice the eyes in portrait photography, isn’t it? So, the thought that came to my mind is: What if a person without vision expresses his/her interpretation of emotion or mood visually? It is a challenge right? That is why I took it,” said the photographer who won ‘National Geographic Channel’s India Moment Award’ last year. He discussed his idea of teaching photography with Saibaba Goud, the founder-chairman of the school. With the permission of higher authorities, he started taking weekend classes for these students.

“It was a wonderful experience to capture. I have never seen any colour, but felt human emotions like joy, sorrow, happiness or anger through sound and vibes. So, I try to capture that in photography,” said Srikanth. He continued, “Since I am blind, I have never dreamt of clicking photographs. But now it is possible, thanks to the special training we are getting from Sir.”

Initially it was not easy to develop their interest in such subject. So, after the first two sessions, Chandrasekhar interacted with them to understand them and their interpretation of objects. “For a normal person, a table appears like a table with its general forms and shapes. But for them, every single person feels it differently,” shared the mentor. So, their interpretation of objects can remind viewers of the famous story of an elephant with three blind men.

Now, within the fifty days of training following sensor photography techniques, Chand explained: “First I hold the camera and remove the lens cover. Since we are learning portrait photography, we asked our subject to speak; following the sound, I press the shutter button to focus and with a beep sound I get the confirmation of focusing. Then I click it to get the picture!”

Although they are quite excited about their new hobby, they are also studiously preparing for their board exam. “We scheduled our day for study, sports, photography and fun! Since our teachers consider us as one of the best batches, we are studying hard to get the best grades in our exam,” said Sai Pawan, who is called ‘calculator’ by his friends because of his mathematics skill!