Above: Nadine Heller, gallery director for “The Mind’s Eye” exhibit, examines one of the photographic works. Right: The process that is used to shoot the photographs in the exhibit involves darkness, an open camera lens and a slow shutter speed. PHOTOS BY AMY ROSEN/STAFF I n “The Minds’ Eye” exhibit by the artists of the Seeing With Photography Collective, not all photographic images are black and white, nor are they perfectly clear — but these things are intentional.
“The Mind’s Eye,” which is a photographic exhibit by visually impaired artists, blind artists and sighted artists, is currently on display at Middlesex County College (MCC), 2600 Woodbridge Ave., Edison. It is available for the public to view through Nov. 4.
An opening reception held at the college featured tours of the exhibit for visually impaired persons, during which guides verbally described each piece of art in great detail.
“Tangled Up” by Mark Andres The artists featured in the exhibit belong to a group called Seeing With Photography Collective, which is based in New York. The collective is made up of artists from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences who share an awareness of sight loss and the determination to create dialogue and integrate their images into a broader context. Their works have been exhibited around the world.
With the help of sighted assistants, the artists have found a way to give viewers a glimpse of images that they picture in their mind’s eye.
Professor Nadine Heller, chairwoman of the college’s Visual Performing and Media Arts Department and the gallery director for “The Mind’s Eye,” said the photographs are shot in the dark with an open camera lens and a very slow shutter speed. Flashlights are used to illuminate the portions of the scene the artist wants the viewer to see.
“It is a very interesting process,” she said. “It can take 20 or 30 minutes to take one image.”
The painstaking process often involves staging elaborate scenes in which the subjects — who are sometimes other artists from the collective — pose while their assistants paint the scene by waving flashlights on the images they want to illuminate. The movement of the lights and any movement of the subjects create unique effects in each piece of art.
“You can see traces of the light in all images,” Heller said. “Some are extremely evident, where you really see the trace movement of the light moving around the subject. It is a process that was new to me as an artist. They read like paintings. They are very, very beautiful, in my view.”
She said Mark Andres, who is a sighted artist and the founder of the Seeing With Photography Collective, has conducted workshops at the college on the light-painting technique and will be returning to do so again. “Meeting the photographers and having them come and speak to students was very interesting,” Heller said. “It demonstrated how creativity goes beyond these obstacles, and expressions can be done no matter how difficult our circumstances are.”
She said blind photographers rely on their senses and touch for cues, but the concepts and set-up for all of the photographs are theirs.
Assistants who can see
See the video may help by www.gmnews.com turning the camera on and off, but the entire scenario is done and conceived of by members of the collective.
Martin Samelson of the Kendall Park section of South Brunswick, a teacher of American Sign Language at the college, was visiting the exhibit.
“In sign language, it is the deaf community communicating, and this is the blind community communicating,” Samelson said. “We have these preconceived notions about what art is, and I have never seen anyone painting with light — especially someone who does not see light, so it is shocking. It matches my concept that people can do anything they want, regardless of what their limitations are.”
For more information, visit www.seeingwithphotography.com or call Middlesex County College, 732-906-2589.