My Heart Is Not Blind – A Photography & Audio Exhibition

… brings light into the dark misperceptions about blindness. For the last 7 years Michael has been listening to men and woman who are blind and visually impaired. Blindness doesn’t make someone less intelligent, less capable, less competent. Many become more courageous and determined. Perception and adaptation are deeper than we can imagine and much more mysterious. Through the gift of images and presence, each eloquent voice draws us into deeper understanding.

Artist Statement

Not all blind people are blind. Not all sighted people can see. Knowing what the world looks like is not a requirement for understanding. Over the last seven years I have been listening to men and women who are blind or visually impaired. It’s been a rare privilege to have these deep and personal conversations. My ears saw much more than my eyes.

As a result of blindness, what have they found out about their other senses? How can new meaning be extracted from familiar sounds? How is perception increased from a cultivation of attention? Why does the general public carry such prejudice?

This exhibition is about the experience of blindness and visual impairment, but also about the nature of perception and human adaptation. It is about what we have in common, and the fragility that is a part of our shared human condition.

Blindness is not what the public thinks it is. For many, darkness and change are deeply frightening. Whenever I hear any sighted person speak of blindness, it is always about limitations. The conversations are rarely about competency or newfound perspectives. When something is taken away, often something else takes its place.

Each person I met who lost his or her eyesight after having vision went through an initial period of depression and desperation. Language seems so inadequate to describe such early seasons of despair. The first year of blindness is extremely different from long-term adaptation. Neuroplasticity is the remarkable story that supports the brain’s ability to reorganize itself to favor non-visual thinking and orientation.

When a person loses sight, he or she remains a whole, vibrant individual. They do not lose their intelligence, personalities, personal histories, and all the egalitarian promises of equal rights. Many become more courageous and determined. Burns Taylor lost his vision at age three when his older brother, age nine, shot him in the face. He has been a university professor and author. He describes his essential questions of existence: “How do you learn to live with something that society makes you feel ashamed of; makes you feel that you are not as capable and not whole? That’s something that I have to live with every day.”

Perception is deeper than we can imagine and more mysterious. Our other senses have their own wisdom separate from sight. Voices expose sincerity and character. Sounds are not just sounds but have origins and destinations. Memory awakens and tilts. What becomes more sensitive is awareness from a cultivation of attention.

To understand another person requires a shift in perspective. I hope visitors who spend time with these wonderful people will be as moved as I have been.

Marti Hathorn spoke emphatically about being fully present in her life. “I wouldn’t describe seeing as being a better sense than any of the others. People ignore their other senses. So much is missed. How would I answer someone who says, “Why travel if you can’t see? My response to them would be, “Why do anything?” Experience is not just visual. It’s feeling emotion. Tactile. It’s smelling. It’s listening. There are so many ways to experience moments to their fullest.”

Michael Nye

Special appreciation to Albert and Bessie Mae Kronkosky Charitable Foundation.
The San Antonio Lighthouse & the remarkable Mike Gilliam. And deepest gratitude to my assistant Alexei Wood.

Retinopathy of Prematurity      Brain Aneurysm     Peter’s Anomaly     Car bomb explosion     Detached Retinas     Scarlett Fever     Charles Bonnet Syndrome Cone and Rod Dystrophy     Septo Optic Dysplasia     Struck by a Train     Liber’s Hereditary Optic     Neuropathy     Cancer of the Retinas     Gunshot     Retinitis Pigmentosa     Libers Congenital Amaurosis     Idiopathic Intracranial     Hypertension Diabetic     Retinopathy Choroideremia     Spinal Meningitis     Glaucoma Stevens-Johnson Syndrome     Birdshot chorioretinopathy     Cortical Blindness     Infantile Congenital Glaucoma     Leber’s congenital amaurosis     Osteoporosis-Pseudoglioma Syndrome     Macular Degeneration     X rare unknown causes