Deaf photographers

I started to look for Deaf photographers with the thought that at least one of them may have previously tried to show their deafness in images. I found various deaf photographers but I have not yet found one that has tried to portray their deafness.

Being Deaf is strange in that the deaf community does not see it as an affliction or a disability, it is simply life, they do not consider it along the sane lines as blindness. They is my own personal knowledge from the deaf people I have known.  Therefore would a deaf photographer try to show their world?

Maggie Lee Sayre

Maggie and her sister were both born deaf in the 1920’s and lived on a houseboat in Kentucky. Originally it was Maggie’s sister that owned a camera but when she died it was passed to Maggie and she recorded life on a riverboat. Her photos were not discovered until she was living in a nursing home in the 1980’s

Dalit Avnon

Dalit was born in Jerusalem , in an article in The Times of Israel By Rebecca McKinsey
(March 26, 2014) she is quoted as saying

“Deaf photographers tend to use their vision to make up for the loss of their hearing,” she said. “They are accurate and they look at things deeply. They give attention to little details that others may tend to overlook. This is a result of the fact that deaf people use their eyes not just to see, but also to listen. This grants them a special perspective in the visual arts.”

Michael Pimentel

Pimental is a self-taught sports photographer. In fact many deaf photographers that I am coming across are self taught most likely due to limited educational facilities/ concessions available. in 2004 he was the first Deaf photographer to ever cover the Olympics. He started out by selling his Stars Wars collection to fund the purchase of his first digital camera, He shot small-scale events such as high school and little league before moving on to large-scale events including earthquakes and Olympics.

Tate Tullier

http://www.tatetullier.com/

Tullier started out as a teen photographing the Louisiana landscape. After graduating he started his own photography business in New York but later returned to Louisiana. After Hurricane Katrina he took photographs for a fundraising cookbook. The images on his website are mostly portraits, interestingly one of the models used is also Deaf, his main body of work is ‘Tub Time with Tate’ a collection of images of people in a bath tub, in an article for The daily Revielle he says

“I grew up in a bathtub,” Tullier said. “[I’ve] always loved the idea of bathtubs: You sit down, you escape your problems, you can let go and just think about everything. [I’ve] always loved bathtubs in photography too. It’s so sexy. Even when it’s not intended to be.”

The bath was his meditative escape from the world, which is something my mum loves to do, sit and soak!

Michael Cook

https://www.jamesephotography.com/

Michael is a Deaf photographer who turned to the camera because most of his friends were living away and he needed something to do. His focus is on wildlife photography and in fact he has an exhibition in Newbury which will run from the end of October 2017 to Christmas 2017. In an interview for ‘Hearing like me’ written by Kirsten Brackett (August 2, 2017) Michael states

 “From being excluded from social events and not being able to do certain jobs that I wanted to do –  such as being in the police force as a police officer – this did not help my self-confidence or self-respect,” .

Emma Amsden

http://www.emmaamsdenphotography.co.uk/section532747.html

Emma was born profoundly deaf and whilst many of her images focus on the landscape of the Yorkshire Dales and Isle of Skye she does attempt to use this to convey her feelings of isolation. Her emphasis is on texture and contrast using her strong visual sense to capture images.

Lalita Gurung

Lalita is a student of the University of East London who graduated this year, her final show depicted the plight of widows in her native Nepal. on the UEL’s website she is quoted as saying

“Being deaf has made me more visual,” she says. “It’s made me more aware of colour, emotions, materials, facial expressions, touch and smell.”

Kate Disher-Quill

Kate is the closest I have found to a photographer attempting to capture deafness or more importantly the feelings of deafness. Kate was born with mild hearing loss which has progressed to moderate hearing loss. Her experiences are slightly different from someone who was profoundly deaf at birth as it appears more fraught with frustrations. In 2014 she started a project entitled Right Hear, Right Now, a photography and multimedia project which explores the experiences of deafness and hearing loss.

http://www.righthearrightnow.com/