Introduction
The visual arts have long excluded those without sight and photographs have largely been taken by the sighted, for the sighted. Photography, specifically, is generally attributed to those with more keen vision than most, who are able to see and capture things missed in everyday life by the masses.
George A. Covington is a photographer using the medium as a means to make visible that which he sees and his particular vantage of the world. In addition to his study and practice of photography, Covington also happens to be blind.
As a blind photographer, he uses a digital camera and computer manipulation to create high-contrast images. As he says, “a photograph is not reality, but an abstraction of reality.”[1] His photography aims both as a clarification for himself and a tool of social reform, championing the portrayal of disabled people in media.
Blindness is commonly considered a complete absence of sight, but most of the blind have some level of light perception and a varying degree of useable eyesight.[2] Through the use of aides and manipulation, the blind are often able to see many things, including art and photography.
Manipulation is a broad term with many meanings. Specifically, in relation to photography, the manipulations that make seeing easier are contrast, size, and spacing. Through manipulating these three elements an artist or designer can essentially guarantee superior visibility for those with vision impairments.[3]
George A. Covington
George A. Covington, born with less than ten percent vision, suffers from retinal degeneration that has rendered him almost completely blind. He has spent his life investigating ways to overcome his disability, see the world as others do, and advocate the same access for all visually disabled.
Photography was a likely end for Covington’s inquiry of visual manipulation, as the flat picture plane is a natural abstraction of a three-dimensional world. This flat plane is used by the photographer to show viewers an impression of the subject. Despite the clearness, directness, or skill of any photograph, the translation from three planes to two is a necessary abstraction.
Covington took to photography after discovering that it wasn’t necessary to see what he was photographing to photograph what he was seeing.[4] He further recounts this experience:
“The odyssey began the day I looked at four small photographs and realized I had stopped seeing the world around me. The four photographs represented a day’s shooting by a friend. For hours I had helped her carry 60 pounds of heavy, antiquated equipment to these four sites. I stood by while she set the ancient 4×5 wooden camera on an even more ancient wooden tripod. I walked around the sites for more than an hour each. I “saw” what she was photographing. Later that day, I held her 4×5 inc contact prints in my hand and realized I did not recognize any of the scenes. What I had “seen” was strictly in my mind.”[5]
His own photograph began through daily experimentations with black and white images. Through the reduction of color came a reduction in distractions, allowing him to focus upon the overall impression of the image rather than the shades and textures created by the color. He says that “A black-and-white photograph helps reduce the differences in degree of vision by allowing the individual to view a person, place or object in the situation best suited to the individual’s particular vision problem. While everyone loves the beauty of a color photograph, color can often add back some of the confusion by reducing the detail and resolution that carries vital information.”[6]
In recent years his work has turned to digital photographs and computer manipulation. Through computer software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Covington is able to adjust images in various ways to help overcome his disability.
Though this manipulation is primarily a way to aid his own sight, his work also serves as a tool of instruction and understanding of the blind populous. His works highlight a view of the world that is different from the experience of most. The high-contrast, one-color images he produces convey the degree of contrast and distinction necessary for the blind to recognize and further highlight the way in which the blind see and understand the world visually. The nuances that might be focused upon in the works of other photographers are left out of these images, focusing instead on the impressions given by the subjects.
Photography Process
Covington’s personal vantage point is conveyed even more thoroughly through the evolution of his work, corresponding to his continual loss of sight. Today his images are usually converted into sketches that highlight only the pertinent features of the subject.
He begins the process with color digital photography. He then digitally converts the images to grayscale, sharpens the edges, heightens the contrast, and then applies different filters until achieving a final digital sketch. While working on the computer he relies upon a 15x-magnifying lens on the screen to control the software.
As with darkroom work, Covington is not able to fully “see” the image until he prints the first copy. This test print gives him direction as to further manipulations needed.[7]
These digital sketches, created from the photographs, allow both detail and perspective to coexist. In the physical world, a blind person would need to be so close to an object to see detail that all perspective would be lost. Conversely, to see the subject in perspective would require the loss of all detail. Through photography and ultimately digital manipulation, both elements are present at once.
Throughout Covington’s work it is evident that the elements of contrast, size, and spacing are of great importance in the completion and finalization of his work. Discussing visual works and elements of design and photograph for the blind Covington states that “There are no hard and fast rules but it should be remembered that some things can be too large and others too small and spacing can be too close or too far apart. This can apply to individual letter or elements of a design or photograph.”[8] The majority of his photographs demonstrate this through their cropped compositions, focusing directly upon the subject. The subject is always in the foreground, the background environment extends along the edges of the composition, giving context to the image and subject.
Influences
Blind photography is likely not a topic well known but has a strong connection to portrait photography. Covington, in particular, connects his work to that of Arnold Newman, a personal friend of the artist.[9]
Newman is known for his portraiture photography, displaying stunning clarity and depth of his subjects. His portraits are well known both for the caliber of subjects and for defining for American twentieth-century environmental portraiture.[10]
Of his own work, Newman states, “I am not so much interested in documentation as in conveying my impressions of individuals by means of the ever-expanding language of my medium.”[11] The work of Covington spurs from this same view of photographs as a medium with varied ways to express impressions. Newman’s photographs convey a sense of seeing more than the eye alone can conceive. His compositions exact the attitudes, countenance, and personality of the subjects portrayed.
In many ways, Newman’s photographs, like Covington, go beyond sight. His 1949 portrait of Jackson Pollock illuminates the way in which Newman captures his subjects so poignantly. The image places Pollack himself receding into the background, awash in a myriad of paint cans and brushes pointing toward him, perhaps as arrows piercing St. Sebastian. The haphazard composition of paint accessories references the abstract expressionism known in his paintings and perhaps the disorder in his own personal life. To the left of Pollock is a skull in profile, facing the subject. Pollock’s own demeanor conveys a resigned individual with slumped shoulders, and fingers grasping lightly around a cigarette. The colors and tones in the image are subdued, with a cold The insightful composition eludes to the self-destruction of Pollock.
The influence of Arnold Newman’s environmental portraiture is evident in Covington’s work. The pair have been friends for over 30 years, influencing one another’s work. Newman had the following to say about George Covington: “Why is it George’s work has so much unity in it? This cannot be an accident. I’m not saying he’s the greatest photographer around. It’s his ideas about photography and his dedication to his ideas that count. His intelligence and understanding of what he can do with photography—they’re just incredible. I’ve done this for 40 years, and he’s given me ideas I’ve never thought of.”[12]
Implications
Certainly, the work of this blind photographer has left an impact on the world of photography. Seeing things in a different way than others do gives Covington’s work a fresh look at people and places.
His work is also a testament to the power of photography as a medium to unite the sighted and blind, allowing both to “see” the other’s perception. Covington’s photographic renown began with his use of photography as a seeing tool. In his paper, Photography: Access to Sight, Covington states that he does not consider himself blind, for “as long as I can photograph I will never be blind.”[13] The power and might of photography are undeniable, for it is the only visual medium to do so much to unite both the sighted and blind.
His work to use photography as a uniting force continues through BlindPhotographers.org, an online organization co-founded by Covington as an arena for discussion of the process and implications of photography by the blind.
This organization launched a project in 2010 called Project Blind Sighted, creating dialogue among blind photographers concerning how they work and showcasing their work.[14]
Of further interest, U.S. organizations, like National Exhibits by Blind Artists, Inc., are working to showcase blind artists and in 2009 HBO released a documentary on blind photography, Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers.[15]
Bibliography
Archive, The Arnold Newman. “Welcome To The Arnold Newman Archive.” http://www.arnoldnewmanarchive.com/ (accessed May 10, 2011).
Blind with Camera School of Photography. http://blindwithcameraschool.org (accessed April 20, 2011).
BlindSighted: Tim O’Bien. http://blog.blindphotographers.org/blindsighted-tim-obrien/ (accessed April 20, 2011).
Blinkie Photography. (accessed April 20, 2011).
Covington, George A., interview by Jessica Shields. (May 11, 2011).
—. About George A. Covington. 2011. (accessed May 11, 2011).
Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers. (accessed April 20, 2011).
Flickr: Blind Photographers. (accessed April 20 2011).
Flickr: Blind Photographers discussion topics. (accessed April 20, 2011).
George Covington’s Method for Using Photography to Enlarge Images. 11 2005. (accessed April 20, 2011).
“Shooting Blind: photographs by the visually impaired.” By Edward Hoagland, 93. New York: Aperture Foundation, 2002.
Kodak. (accessed April 20, 2011).
National Exhibition of Blind Artists. (accessed April 20, 2011).
Newman, Arnold. Arnold Newman: five decades. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986.
Project BlindSighted. http://blog.blindphotographers.org/project-blindsighted/ (accessed April 20, 2011).
Seeing With Photography Collective. (accessed April 20, 2011).
To Photograph Is To See. (accessed April 20, 2011).
Yayla, Lisa. [Art_beyond_sight_theory_and_research] To Photograph is to See: A Portrait of George Covington. February 23, 2006. (accessed May 10, 2011).
[1] (Covington, About George A. Covington 2011)
[2] (Covington 2011)
[3] (Covington 2011)
[4] (Covington, About George A. Covington 2011)
[5] (Covington, About George A. Covington 2011)
[6] (Yayla 2006)
[7] (Covington, About George A. Covington 2011)
[8] (Covington 2011)
[9] (Covington 2011)
[10] (Newman 1986, vi)
[11] (Newman 1986, vi)
[12] (Yayla 2006)
[13] (Yayla 2006)
[14] (BlindSighted: Tim O’Bien n.d.)
[15] (Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers n.d.)