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Seeing Beyond Sight: Photographs by Blind Teenagers | 
 enlarge | Author: Tony Deifell
Creator: Robert Coles
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $9.98
You Save: $14.97 (60%)
New (30) Used (17) Collectible (1) from $6.15
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 710770
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 152
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 7.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0811853497
Dewey Decimal Number: 779
EAN: 9780811853491
ASIN: 0811853497
Publication Date: April 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New - Has remainder mark. Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
With its ambitious, seemingly paradoxical premise, Seeing Beyond Sight is a book of photographs taken by teenagers with limited or no sight. Seeing Beyond Sight documents how educator Tony Deifell taught his blind students to take pictures as an innovative, multi-sensory means of self-expression. Their intuitive images are surprising and often beautiful. Complementing the photographs are the students' own words explaining what the process and images mean to them. Seeing Beyond Sight is a rare book of visual art and an educational resource that speaks with inspirational power, not only to the visually impaired community, but to anyone who has ever considered what it means to see.
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| Customer Reviews:
 See What You Think March 13, 2008
A student of mine made a presentation about this book in my class last year and based on his recommendation (thanks, Duane) I ordered a copy.
The students in the book, from Governor Morehead School for the Blind in North Carolina, have a wide range of visual difficulties, and an unobtrusive logo-like emblem lets us know the disability level of the photographer in question. Some of them have low vision, some can see lights, shapes and shadows, others have no vision at all. I couldn't really tell a difference in the quality of these photos, except that the totally blind students had a more intuitive point and shoot method and sometimes they missed the ostensible subject--though what the camera revealed is usually quite interesting. It's hard to say how many Deifell and company culled to make this brief assemblage, but many of the photos here are wrenching either on a Walker Evans-documentary level or because we are seeing life the way teens do, as a pageant of absolute fact and absolute fantasy both at the same time.
I wasn't sure either that the black and white format allowed for enough scope. Next time around perhaps, we'd enjoy seeing some color work by this talented group of young artists.
Touching and Beautiful January 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I saw this book at a design conference I went to. It brought tears to my eyes. The images are powerful and the stories about the students are moving. One reason the book moved me so much is I am an artist who is at high risk of one day going blind. I always feared that going blind would end my career as a photographer and designer. This book made me rethink my roll as an artist and it encouraged me not to fear going blind. Plus I gave the book to my mom who is legally blind for Christmas. She pointed at a few of the pictures and said "That is how I see. I can't believe it. This is the most amazing gift." It is inspiring and beautiful. I have never come across a book that has spoke so dearly to my own experience. I am so grateful that I stumbled across this treasure.
Moving and Imagistic June 12, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a wonderful book. It's remarkable simply as a collection of photographs by students who have little or no vision, since the shots are fascinating and sometimes quite profound. But the images coupled with what the young photograhers have to say about their work makes is one of the more moving photography books I've ever come across.
New perspectives March 11, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I just finished reading Seeing Beyond Sight, and it is both about blindness and much more. My work for almost twenty years has been helping blind people, and the idea that visually people take photographs is not to me foreign at all. A significant number of blind people are low vision, and photographs can be a way to visually see things that their eyes don't show them. Some of the students in this book fall into this group where photos become an aid.
But, most of the photographers in Tony Deifell's book cannot see the photographs they are taking. Yet, they get tremendous value out of them. Just like sighted people, the students proudly show their photos around to other people. Becoming a photographer unlocks the voice of still others. One photo becomes a tool for advocacy, as in fix this crack in the sidewalk that catches my white cane!
I was surprised and delighted with the both the book and the photos. So much of taking great pictures is seeing things from a new perspective, and I learned that that's definitely in the cards when blind students take pictures.
Perception Beyond Seeing. March 3, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a gem. It's a reminder that perception is so much more than sight and that seeing is a way of engagement with the world rather than simply looking.
As the photographs unfold, they take you on a journey into what is relevant in the photographers' lives; how light and dark play as guides; how cracks in the pavement interrupt; how what some take for granted, others are denied. The photos open up new ways of seeing and understanding our environment and the spectrum of people who interact with it.
Deifell's sensitive and thoughtful text gives a further dimension to the book, gently provoking the reader to examine how they see others, and how they see themselves.
Highly recommended.
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