See As No Other is a collection of pictures taken by the visually impaired and their experience of taking pictures. The book is written by Partho Bhowmick and published by Partridge Publishing, an imprint of Penguin, USA. The Foreword is written by photographer Douglas McCulloh, curator of Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists at the California Museum of Photography in 2009. The Afterword is written by Dr. Simon Hayhoe, UK based researcher, writer on blindness, art and society. The book is endorsed by photographers, artists, curators, critics and experts on Disability Art culture around the world.
See As No Other was first launched at the Blind Creation conference at the University of London (2015), later read/presented at literature festivals in Hyderabad, Mumbai and at different forms in India and abroad.
See As No Other celebrates human diversity, carrying us into a world of “illuminated” darkness to explore and debate what sight and seeing is really all about.
Along with print and Kindle formats, See As No Other is also available in full audio DAISY format for visually impaired and print disable readers.
See As No Other has audio description of over 100 pictures. It is India’s first audio DAISY photo book and one of its kind in the world. Audio book is available in Bookshare portal.
The twentieth century has produced a storehouse of critical thought on how pictures function, the role of our senses in appreciating pictures. New avenues of research in cognitive psychology have focused on “raised” pictures that can be perceived and recognized by the visually impaired through their sense of touch guided by audio description.
As more and more pictures taken by the visually impaired were coming out of the Blind With Camera project found a combination of touch and sound provides the visually impaired with an understanding of touch & feel “raised” pictures, linear diagrams, concepts of space and perspective, surfaces and textures. It enhances visualization, listening skills, and sensory perception, creative and cognitive skills in the visually impaired.
Pictures taken “by” the visually impaired have to be "for" the visually impaired. Keeping this in mind, all exhibitions of Blind With Camera multi-sensory and inclusive for both visually impaired and sighted visitors.
Beyond exhibitions, the book In Touch With Pictures thoughtfully incorporated combination of adaptive ways, such as touch & feel raised pictures, Braille and audio description, to provide a holistic experience to the visually impaired readers. It offers a whole new experience for the sighted readers as well.
This inclusiveness of photographs offers SENSORY, EMOTIONAL and INTELLECTUAL connect between the visually impaired and the sighted and redefines the common notion “to see is to photograph, and to photograph is to see”.
In Touch With Pictures is written and designed by Partho Bhowmick. Published by Beyond Sight Foundation. The book is available on request.
Partho Bhowmick from Blind With Camera is engage as consultant and resource person in making photographs and visual art works accessible to visitors with visual impairment and people with disability at public and private museums and galleries.
Involve in several arts access projects in India like the National Museum, New Delhi (a project of the UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture) and the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, Jaipur (a project of the Commonwealth Association of Museums and the City Palace, Jaipur).
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