My Opia

Following three major operations to save my eyes from an early onslaught of glaucoma (I have only 58% vision left in my right eye), I went back to photography in late 2022, determined not to let my visual challenges stop me from once again using this medium to achieve certain artistic goals that had eluded me in my painting career. It was through sheer chance at an art fair when I realized that I could photograph the world just as I see it when I take my glasses off. Without glasses everything before me appears to swim or dance. Buildings, objects and people are blurred, fragmented and refracted, out of focus, and I often see double or triple. Intense lighting like sunshine and spotlights are a particularly peculiar element with myopia and glaucoma, as flashes, strobes and refractions hit the eyes randomly and create curious sparkles, lines and even bizarre fireworks. The titles, which refer to a colour that appears in a specific photograph, are a tribute to my painting career where I lived and breathed colour every day. When I look at the results, I am comforted by the fact that even the camera can see the world that I see, that a piece of equipment designed for precision in revealing the miniature details and nuances of our planet, can also be manipulated to communicate what myopia, with all its imperfections, looks like.