Tina Caruso Final Project Proposal

1. CONCEPT / SUBJECT

My idea for the final is to explore the concept of showing how I see the world. Since, I’m a photographer who is visually impaired. I haven’t seen any examples through photography explaining what someone might see with my vision impairments. My vision impairments are Cortical Visual Impairment and nystagmus. I have seen examples of someone’s vision with Cataracts or Glaucoma. But I have never seen it for CVI and nystagmus. So, this is my chance to give examples through photography of what a person might see with Cortical Visual Impairment and nystagmus.

Especially during the times of the pandemic where there are so many visual cues. I have trouble seeing where, six feet part is. Also, I can’t recognize people that I know with masks on.

2. TECHNICAL APPROACH (INPUT)

I’m intending to shoot my project with my 18-55 meter mm lens and 75-300 meter mm lens. I will be using a tripod. The technical concepts I will be using are depth of field, motion, color and point of view. I will be going out on cloudy days and sunny days. I will be using fast and slow shutter speeds.

3. TECHNICAL APPROACH AND SPECS: (OUTPUT)

I will be keeping my photos in color. The ideal size of the prints would be 34×24 inches to 60×40 inches. Some will be horizontal and some will be portrait. I will be framing them as triptychs.

RESPONSE FROM REBECCA

Tina,

Using photography to describe your vision impairment to your viewers makes your proposed project highly personal, specific, and ambitious. The ways in which your vision are affected by (and affect your experience of) the pandemic are particularly interesting and poignant, and I wonder how these might be foregrounded in your work. I’m excited to see what you make, but I have some questions and would love a bit more information.

1. How do you intend to translate Cortical Visual Impairment and nystagmus visually to viewer who doesn’t know what that looks/feels like?  You talk about employing all of the basic principles of photography that we’ve studied this semester, but you don’t talk about what techniques you will use to convey this particular way of seeing photographically. Since nystagmus involves rapid eye movement, I can assume that you might use camera movement to convey this, but your proposal notes that you will use a tripod. Since one quality of CVI seems to be better vision when viewing moving objects compared to stationary objects, will you shoot moving subjects? I just read that CVI also involves better visual response for near objects vs distant objects; will much of your work focus on things that are close? Do CVI and/or nystagmus involve blurring of vision, so that you would intentionally throw things very out of focus?
2. Why triptychs? How do you intend to combine the images? Is it important that they all be the same aspect ratio and fit together into an uninterrupted whole? Or would they look more like collages? How exactly do the three images in each triptych relate to each other? Through color? Content? Form? Are they shot at the same moment or in the same place? 

For now, look at Uta Barth’s Field (1995-98), and Ground (1992-92) which create the “illusion of filmic space and time” through motion and intentional blurring. In Florafaunal Angiography, Dayna Bartoli, who was an ophthalmic photographer, talks about vision as both a biological and aesthetic process.

There are many artists using panoramic diptychs and triptychs, including David Hilliard and Barbara Bosworth, in New England Trail.  Lucia Ganieva uses the triptych to tell a story of a particular factory through the combining of different elements associated with that place (an interior, a textile close-up, and a portrait). Claire Felicie uses triptychs to talk about the changing face and character of a person over time. Take some time to articulate how your triptychs will function and why you are making this particular choice. Consider the fact that the triptych has a long art historical lineage and is often associated with sacred or religious imagery.

-R