Sony Europe and renowned blind photographer Gary Williamson have today launched a new photography collection, Through Their Lens, to showcase how innovation can remove certain obstacles and empower creatives to realise their potential for a more accessible future.
The work coincides with World Sight Day by inviting viewers to experience the world as Gary does and demonstrates how technology and creativity make photography accessible to people who are blind or partially sighted.
Gary, who is based outside Bolton and does a lot of his street photography around Greater Manchester, went blind at 18 due to Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy whilst backpacking around Europe at the age of 18.
With this happening in 1990 and with no way of contacting home, he hitchhiked his way back from Gibraltar to Manchester. This was a crucial experience and as Gary puts it himself, “I still say to myself every day, if you can get home from Gibraltar in 1990 with no cash machines, no phone and a map that you can no longer read then you can do anything.”
With the advent of digital cameras and their LCD displays 16 years later, Gary found that he could make out enough of the image he was capturing to start taking photos again. Through Their Lens explores how Gary sees the world and his reliance on contrasts, whether between light and shadow or the colour of different objects, to navigate and make sense of it in art.
Gary’s story is one of resilience and, as he says himself, “with my photography I hope to challenge stereotypes and create a deeper appreciation of all forms of sight.”
