My husband Mike does the Facebook thing, and earlier this week he posted a link to a collection of portraits of people who can’t see there. That post of his got so many comments that I thought maybe my blog would be a good place to explain how we met the photographer.
One of the portraits in the “Fade to White” project.
A couple years ago I got an email from a stranger who said he was taking portraits of people who can’t see. “I am emailing you to inquire if you would be interested in participating in the project,” he wrote. “It would be an honor to take your picture!”
Uh-oh, I thought. Another nutjob who heard about my job modeling nude for art students. Before hitting the delete button, though, I did a little research. And guess what? The guy was legit!
Charlie Simokaitis is a sought-after commercial photographer whose 13-year-old daughter has a deteriorating eye condition that will soon leave her completely blind. Faye Simokaitis is the inspiration for Fade to White, a compilation of the portraits her dad has taken of people who are visually impaired or blind. Charlie Simokaitis describes the project as an “effort to try to understand the impending reality” of his daughter’s loss of sight. From his artist statement:
As I spend more time with blind people, I am developing a perverse kinship with the very condition that will eventually lay claim to my daughter’s eyesight. For me, solace lies in the creation of this work.
After reading that, I hit the reply button on his email message. Y-E-S, my talking computer parroted the letters I typed. Sitting for a portrait would be an honor.
Charlie likes to meet with his models to chat before a shoot, so I suggested we meet for lunch at Hackney’s. Once Mike took a look at some of the portraits Charlie already had up on the Fade to White web site, he decided to come along. “These pictures are great, Beth,” he told me. “I want to meet this guy!”
Charlie is as striking as the photographs he takes. Over lunch, he told Mike and me a little about the research he had done before starting his project. Photographing the blind has its roots in street photography, he said. It was pretty much voyeuristic. “You know, the blind person would have no idea the photographer was there.” In contrast, Charlie wanted his subjects to know exactly what he was up to, and he didn’t need us to be grasping white canes or posing with our guide dogs. “Most of my portraits are from the waist up.” More from his artist statement:
This work looks at the unseeing Other while attempting to understand the fetishism of other people’s perceived pain and the taboos and tacit responsibility of representing a blind person.
It was hot the afternoon we scheduled the photo session, and I showed up wearing a dark red tank top. Charlie knew right away where he’d want me to pose, and our session took about an hour. “Look up at the sky,” he’d say. “Don’t smile. Look towards the sound of that truck. Chin down. Don’t smile. Shoulders back.” For most of my shots, I’m standing against a yellow brick wall in Printers Row Park. The session gave me an idea of what it might be like to be a fashion model.
Charlie used film to take his portraits, and he completed his project — and his Master’s thesis — this past year. My portrait is included in the collection, and it’s getting rave reviews. See for yourself: Charlie’s Fade to White photos are available online.
I get nothing but a blank page when i click on the links.
Try it now Hava. I’m afraid Beth’s editor (me) missed the bad links before publishing, but they should be fixed now.
Thanks Mike.
I would LOVE to see the portraits, Beth,but kept getting the message: Error — web site cannot be found. I tried three different links.
Mary–see above, the links should work now.
The photo of you is fabulous Beth. I hope the photographer printed a copy for Mike.
No, but I think they are available for purchase? Would love to, ahem, see Charlie make some $$$ on this very well-thought-out project.
[…] « Understanding blindness–through photography […]
So glad you fixed the links here, Beth. All the portraits are stunning. You look especially strong and beautiful. XOX Karen
You’re not the first one to say I look “strong” in this portrait. I like to hear that, thanks!
Finally Beth!! A photo that does you justice. It’s beautiful. And so are the others. What a gifted photographer and what a great idea.
Yes, and he’s a good *writer*, too. Love the use of the phrase “perverse kinship” in his author’s statement.
Wow! Beth, the photo of you is fantastic! And Mike is right… all those portrait photographs are great! Some of them– mostly ones which are darker in background– look almost like oil paintings. Another enjoyable and educating post, Beth! Thanks to you and your editor, as always *smiles*
You’re welcome. And thanks to Charlie — interesting to imagine his photo portraits looking like oil paintings.
Beth,
I have a friend who has a grand daughter or maybe great grand daughter who is blind. She is about 2 years old I believe. When her parents found out she was blind, they were devastated. I have given them a lot of advice and encouragement. I will forward this blog to them and the next corrected link blog to them also. You may hear from them. They may want to get on your email list. I will tell them about you.
And I haven’t forgotten about my baseball message. I’ll get it to you soon.
No rush — still plenty of time before baseball season starts —
Really special photos. Thanks for posting them
Wonderful story about photographing blind people. I am especially interested after taking so many pictures of street people in BuenosAires; they were so cooperative and enjoyed the attention of a photographer.
Yes,, it was telling when Charlie told us that people who are blind have been common subjects in street photography in the past. Must say, I preferred being in the know.
Stunning photos. Would have liked to put names to the faces. I was touched by the photographer’s motivation. Reminded me of the sad irony of the late glorious soprano, Beverly Sills, who had a profoundly deaf daughter.
Great photos. I am forwarding the link to my son- in-law and friend Jane who are very thoughtful photographers –
I wanted to thank Beth for posting about my photography. It has been such an honor. (Thanks Mike for your help as well!) What started as, well, a “photo project” has resulted in so many new friendships. When I began photographing V.I. and blind people my daughter Faye could see fairly well. At that time I did not know any V.I or blind people. The subsequent five years have brought with them the diagnosis of “legally blind” with the expectation that Faye’s vision will continue to follow a steep decline. Not only has it been a valuable learning experience to get to know my subjects (Faye often accompanies me on these photo shoots), it has also been a lot of fun. If these photographs succeed it is because of the generosity of communities such as this one. Thank you all for your comments which I cherish deeply.
I wish he had met and photographed Elsie. She is quite an attraction when she wears her special glasses that she uses at the opera. You’d think she was about to perform microsurgery!
Now, *that’s* an image.
You are a beautiful lady…but then…you know that…everyone says so! Soon, Judy Spock
I only get his website but can’t see your portraits….
Thanks for the heads up –I’ll check with Charlie and get back to you.
Hi Denis,
Thanks so much for your interest. To see the portraits please click on the link on the left “Fade to White” -c-
Thanks for the post
I am interested in reading more – Charlie Simokaitis, is your thesis related to this project? Is it available online someplace?
Hi Laura, Thank you for looking at the portraits. I apologize for not being able to respond until now. I did have a statement online for a while which explained the premise for creating the photographs. Eventually I removed it as the scope of my photographic concerns, especially relating to the subjects of vision, vision loss and blindness have been expanding to include much more nuanced considerations. As a portrait photographer, my first instinct, upon learning that my daughter Faye would eventually loose her vision, was to seek out and photograph people who are visually impaired or blind. Until then I had never met or spent any time with a blind person. It was a wonderfully demystifying process to get to know my photo-subjects during the project. Making the pictures was a truly enjoyable, humbling and powerful collaboration. I find that one of the things about portraiture is that it seems to answer more questions than it asks, ie; here is a picture of Beth Finke who happens to be blind. There may be certain ephemeral elements in the picture, the model’s facial expression or body language, the quality of light, etc that may or may not collude into a successful image. For those that can see the picture, they might even feel that they know Beth even better by seeing a different side of her. Perhaps the picture confirms an opinion or bias that one already had about her. Suffice to say that making pictures, at least for me, is, well, complicated especially when the issue of representation is at play. As my ideas around vision loss and blindness, specifically my daughter’s vision loss, expanded with the breadth of the psychological ramifications associated with Faye rapidly losing her vision, I came to the realization that to truly attempt to get at the deeper, seemingly chaotic and disorienting aspects of her experience, I would need to expand my photographic vocabulary beyond the realm of portraiture. Thus in trying to embrace the confusion and depression that pervades Faye’s life at present I have incorporated abstractions, landscapes and still life images that, for me, seem to better act as a visual equivalents for her state of mind than, say, a portrait of another blind or visually impaired person, into my photographic practice. This extension of my project about the loss of vision is called With Whom Do I Have the Pleasure? and appears on my site. While I continue to make portraits of blind or visually impaired people, this tandem approach separates my desire to portray specific people from the desire to recreate a psychological experience specific to a person, in this case my daughter. Again Laura, thank you for looking at the pictures.
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