Rosita Mckenzie is a blind photographer from Scotland. Her work unleashes her creativity and shows an amazing amount of underlying vision. She has raised awareness of visual disability in a way previously unimagined and hopes the ancient mystery of visual disability can be better understood through her work. Rosita spoke to Stuart Russell B.E.M in July 2013.
What is it about photography that you enjoy? My practice and the images I create, take people by surprise. When I first began taking photographs seriously in 2006, there were very few blind photographers around. There were even fewer totally blind female photographers. In fact, even now, some people find it a very difficult concept to grasp until they have seen my work or heard me speak about my practice.
Like many visually disabled people, I have had sight. It was in childhood but I retain vivid memories of the things I saw and experienced as a sighted person. All forms of photography fascinated me. Many years later, I became aware of visually disabled photographers, none of them women. Being totally blind, I knew I would require sighted assistance to develop such an ambitious project. In the summer of 2006 I was invited by Inverleith House Gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, to photograph the Garden with the guidance of a sighted photographer, and instantly everything changed! I realized it was possible with the right assistance to be a photographer and I haven’t looked back since!
How do you take your photographs? It is essential that I have the right kind of assistance. I require sighted help but not someone with a controlling, dictatorial attitude. My photography practice is a holistic undertaking from the point of a project’s conception to the material existence of my exhibited work. I therefore require the assistance of people with technical ability and an artistic approach. It is very much a working collaboration of equals! I find working with young artists generally very rewarding. They are more open-minded and responsive to my ideas and the experimental nature of my work. For these reasons I have confidence in communicating and developing my ideas.
The process supporting my photography has a clear structure. It begins with an idea of something I want to photograph. I discuss my initial idea with my facilitator. Between us we work out the practicalities and identify any difficulties that might obstruct the photo shoot. My assistant will assist me around the environment and describe its general appearance. All the time, I am listening and analysing the information. If we have extra strong or poor light conditions, my assistant will adjust the camera for me. I then start taking my images. Some basic editing of the images will also take place at this time. If I feel the images have not worked, they are deleted. I then ask for suggestions regarding improved angles or will move closer or farther away from the subject. In this way, I capture some very interesting shots. If I am working indoors, at home, I often work alone. On these occasions, I experiment with more abstract images. For instance, the effects of changing light on melting ice or patterned material.
After the photo shoot I upload my images to my PC. My assistant will then help me to select and label the images I want to keep; this is done by describing each image to me. It can be time consuming, as I tend to take lots of images at any one time.
Is it ever frustrating not being able to see your images? Everyone who looks at my images tends to see something different in them. So it could be difficult for me to gauge the quality of my work. However, I am very sensitive to people’s reactions. If for instance, several people are drawn to one particular image, I class that image as a success. I am also delighted if a description of an image matches my pre-shoot plan or if an image when described, reveals unexpected characteristics and qualities I didn’t anticipate.
Does the description of each image fuel your imagination? Once I have taken my images, I am usually apprehensive and want someone whose opinion I respect to look at them quickly. Only then, when they have been described to me, can I judge the photo shoot as a success. It is nerve-racking. The moment of revelation is also hugely exciting and inspiring! So much so, that I am envisaging other future subjects by the end of the session. The memory of the
photo
shoot
and
the
description process afterwards, provides a constant source of inspiration. I am not only inspired by the still photographic image but how I may interpret an image into a ceramic form. Creating ceramic interpretations of selected images is something I am developing alongside my photography.
I want my photographs to be accessible to other visually disabled people. So with the support of sculptors, I have begun creating 3D ceramic images. My most recent series of ceramic artwork is based on several firework images I took last winter. Some blind people may never have seen a firework! They only know that fireworks make loud noises and produce pungent, acrid smells, so I was inspired to depict such images in clay. This way, blind children and adults can trace the trajectory of a firework and discover how it explodes and blossoms when they hear the hiss and bang.
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