Chennai: A beam of sunlight falling on a patch of dead leaves. A cat sunning herself. A canopy of trees. At a glance, they would seem like regular photographs, but these are different. All the 50 pictures on display at the exhibition at IIT Madras this week were clicked by blind photographers aided by sighted co-creators.The group of photographers, mostly comprising colleges students from across the country, attended a three-day workshop at IIT-M, where they worked with co-creators from the department of media studies at SRM.“It had just rained, and my co-creator told me the weather was beautiful. I balanced the phone against my head and captured the sunshine coming through the branches along with a hint of rain, and it came out beautifully,” says Hemachandran Karah, one of the participants, who is also an assistant professor at IIT-M and the co-founder and head of The Accessibility Research Centre. “Visually impaired people have to use our own body as tripod—we hold the phone or camera against our chest, forehead, etc,” he adds.Another of his clicks is one of an electric buggy—he measured its width using footsteps and then stepped back to get a wide angle. “We get the help of AI on our phones, which says what the image is. But even before AI, visually impaired people were taking photographs using their sense of touch and smell,” says Hemachandran.“I felt the leaves with my hands and wanted to photograph them,” says Karthikayeni G, another participant. “During the workshop, the instructors had taught us when to use landscape and portrait modes. I sought the help of my co-creator for that and clicked the photo, and everyone said it came out well,” she says. “All the photos have a QR code which opens to an explanation of what the photo is about. I hope this facility is introduced in all govt and public exhibitions so that the visually challenged can also experience them.”The exhibition is on at Alliance Francaise till Aug 26.
