Guided by Blindness

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A blind man helped Gaia Squarci find the heart of her photography project documenting the lives of the sightless and visually impaired. Dale Layne was describing to her the onset of blindness, which he said was like seeing the world on a broken screen that fragments, then eventually obliterates, reality.

“Broken Screen” became not just the project’s name, but also its guiding sentiment. It made her dwell less on the lack of sight itself, but more on how it changes both how you think about and perceive the world around you.

Voices of ‘Broken Screen’


Michael Faillace, employment lawyer (Slide 3).

“I didn’t try to structure it in a literal way,” Ms. Squarci said. “Dale has a camera that has a broken screen and he takes pictures that no one can see, though the pictures are there. The idea is more like a computer that functions without the screen: your mind is there, your feelings and personality stay the same. But everything about the way you perceive the world and interact with it is influenced by the fact that you don’t have a screen.”

The project began two years ago when Ms. Squarci, 24, was studying photography in New York. She had thought about a project about how blind couples were attracted despite being unable to see one another. But she quickly put aside that idea when she started frequenting Visions, an organization that helps the blind and visually impaired. She realized there was a lot she didn’t know about their daily lives and routines.

Gaia Squarci Collin Watt tied a knot on a climbing rope in his backyard in Jamaica, Queens.

“There is an invisible wall between the sighted and the visually impaired,” Ms. Squarci said. “One of the women I interviewed, she has been blind since she was 4 years old, she told me sighted people are almost scared to deal with the blind. Being blind is like speaking a language. If sighted people don’t find eye contact â€" which is the first hint of communication â€" they feel lost and they don’t engage.”

Her earliest encounter at Visions led her to Mark Andres, a photographer who led a workshop for the center’s clients. He would describe scenes that the photographers â€" who had once been sighted and had memory of vision â€" would collaborate with him in setting up and then photographing using long exposures, illuminating part of the subject with flashlights they guided by touch.

Voices of ‘Broken Screen’


Donald Baker, a radio D.J. at the Visions center for the blind.

Dale Layne, one of the participants, became Ms. Squarci’s friend and guide, telling her about interesting events and outings. As Ms. Squarci got to know more subjects, she accompanied them to their homes â€" where television provided a constant soundtrack â€" or to museum outings where sighted guides would describe masterpieces.

“I remember for one sculptor, they had to wear gloves so they could touch the sculpture,” she said. “You’re going to imagine the art in a different way and experience it differently.”

How they experienced their own loss of sight varied. Ms. Squarci was struck when one man told her how, after being totally blind for two months, he regained vision for a fleeting moment. He was able to glimpse his girlfriend.

Voices of ‘Broken Screen’



Donald Baker, radio D.J. at Visions.

“It stayed like that for a few seconds, and then everything got gray,” Ms. Squarci said. “These little moments, for me, are important. He was saying he likes to go to the theater because you have this perception of the actor being in the same room with you. What he misses the most are the facial expressions.”

She also realized that everything could go dark without notice, as it did for one woman who was blinded in a car accident when she was 26.

“She became blind from one moment to another,” Ms. Squarci said. “I asked her how she moved into accepting this new thing. She said: ‘I didn’t have the time to notice. One moment I’m sighted and the following moment I’m blind. If I spent the night crying because I’m blind, the next day I would still be blind.’ ’’

Voices of ‘Broken Screen’



Alexandra Hobbes, a student of forensic criminology.

The idea of visual memory came through in some of her pictures. Dale, for example, repairs computers relying on his recollections of their circuits and wires. But another subject made Ms. Squarci question the idea of memory itself.

“She was 4 when she lost her sight, and she can recall colors from television and ‘The Simpsons,’ ” Ms. Squarci said. “But she couldn’t remember her face. Of course her face changed so much. It’s not just the perception of the world, but of yourself.”

Ms. Squarci intends to continue the project, adding audio interviews she has done with many of her subjects. To her, they are the most important audience.

“Being guided by them, there are infinite things that I can still explore,” she said. “Pictures are limited, especially for the perception of what they can get out of them. I would like to do something with sound that they can experience more and possibly collaborate with other artists or designers who can do something really creative for them.”

Gaia Squarci Blind people wear sunglasses not only for medical reasons, but also, often, for social acceptance. They are aware that sighted people tend to be more at ease not seeing their eyes at all, instead of looking for eye contact and not getting it.

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