Braille Live

Professor Teaching Blind People To Take Pictures
From “The Korea Herald”
Professor teaching blind people how to take pictures
A special book on photography is to be published tomorrow. The book, written in braille, is the nation’s first aimed at helping blind people learn how to take photographs.

It was 20 years ago when the author Yang Jong-hoon, professor at Sangmyung University of Arts, became interested in teaching photography to the blind.

While studying in the United States in 1989, he once asked a blind couple to take a picture of him. At the time, he realized that even visually impaired people can take photographs with some help.

In 2007, Yang proposed an art project that educates blind people on photography and gained positive responses both from art and welfare communities.

Starting with 10 students that April, Yang has so far taught 31 blind people through his photography class “The World Viewed Through the Heart.”

“You may think that blind people would feel frustrated. However, as they take photographs for the first time in their lives, they find it interesting and feel confidence as well,” said the 49-year-old professor.

Thanks to the developed camera technologies such as autofocus systems, it has become easier for blind people to learn about photography while college volunteer students help them angle a camera in the right direction.

Yang said that they sometimes operate a camera more delicately than most, using the extra responsiveness of their other senses.

“Some people take a picture of half a body or a person without arms. However, these angles have not been imagined or attempted by ordinary people who always try to put everything into a frame,” Yang said, adding that he could learn a feeling of freedom through blind students.

“I hope that the photography education for blind people could be included in their regular curriculum and that they could be accepted to major in photography in university,” he said.
(jylee@heraldm.com