Andrew and Eamon are currently seeking support and funding for an overseas exchange trip to Edinburgh that will see him engage with an established network of Vision Impaired Photographers within the UK. It’s been a dream to visit Edinburgh for many years, and with degenerating vision, Andrew is set on visiting Edinburgh in  August 2012 to capture everything he can – this will also coincide with the annual Edinburgh Art Festival.

It is only through your support that Andrew can make this trip, not only financial support will be needed to enable Andrew to travel overseas and host his own exibition, but assistance will be needed for printing and supporting his trip while in Edinburgh. Your support will be rewarded through many different avenues – advertising, photographic prints, invitations to special events and more.

Andrew and Eamon would really appreciate if you could share this page with your friends and family – not only will it bring greater awareness to Andrew’s Edinburgh project, but in turn, you’re helping to raise awareness of a growing network of vision impaired and disabled artists in Australia.

If you would like to share your messages of support or provide Andrew assistance in achieving his dream, You can email Andrew atandrew@blinkiephotography.com.au. By Supporting Andrew and Eamon, You’re not only supporting a talented and wonderful person – you are supporting a life-long legacy.

Between Storms

Christmas day in Melbourne will go down as one of the worst storms that the city has ever had. It was a humid 30c degree day and by late afternoon the heavens open up with such force it created mayhem through the North West and North East of Melbourne. The storms came through in 3 waves, starting of with a thunderstorm, followed by a massive hail storm and then to finish up with a tropical thunderstorm down poor. The hail storm lasted a good 15 minutes as it tore through trees tearing down leaves and branches, blocking storm water drains. The hail stones cover the ground giving locals a white Christmas but before they could take it all in a tropical thunderstorm hit in the same areas creating a wall of water 3 feet high. Eltham was one of the hardest hit areas as housing is built on rolling hills. The drains were so blocked from the hail storm the massive tropical thunderstorm rain had nowhere to go but flood out homes and roads. Melbourne had over 3000 calls for help to the State Emergency Services as homes and shops were damaged from the rising waters and roofs damaged from the  tennis balls size hail stones pounding the area.

Steam from melting ice

One of the amazing sights Andrew saw was the effects of the hail hitting the hot roads, creating a steam of fog where visibility was very poor for car drivers as cars disappeared as Andrew continued to photograph the event. At the time Andrew didn’t notice the steam until he downloaded the images onto his computer. The photos below show how much water had fallen at the hight of the storms as the water levels rose up to 2  meters high at its peak.

CFA Truck Main Road Eltham

CFA truck hits the flood waters on Main Road Eltham

Rail line washed away, Main Rd Eltham.

At its deepest point, the flood waters reached 2 meters.

The Disability and Arts Transition Team (DATT) will be working with Melbourne-based photographer Andrew Follows and local artist Sam Oster to run Shots in the Dark, a community-led photography project with Blind and Vision Impaired people (VIP) in Adelaide taking place from March 2012 – August 2012. The outcome of the works resulting from this project will feature in an exhibition to be held during the SALA festival.

The Disability and Arts Transition Team (DATT) is an initiative of Arts SA, providing information, advice, networking, creative and professional development opportunities to disabled and Deaf artists, arts workers, participants and audiences. DATT is a disability-led project and is committed to increasing accessibility, equality, creativity, diversity and inclusion for Deaf and disabled people to participate in arts and culture. We continually look to challenge socially perceived limitations on the capacities of artists, and offer new and innovative opportunities for Deaf and disabled people to engage in arts practice.

In response to requests received from members of the Blind and vision impaired community to provide opportunities to explore and develop their creative experiences, Shots in the Dark would offer community members the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the photographic process, to become Blind Photographers.

Blind photographers may sound like an oxymoron, but photography as a creative art practice by VIPs is growing across the globe. Even so, VIP photographers face substantial hurdles to be photographers and members of the Blind and vision impaired community are not given opportunity to explore their relationship to the creative practice.

The term blind photographer can be used to describe any photographer who is vision impaired, representing many types of vision impairment, including neurological and retinal conditions as well as profound blindness. Each blind photographer brings unique challenges and perspectives to the camera, and like a photographer working from film, the images they take hold many surprises, some funny, some worthless and, fortunately, a few gems!

The project proposed by DATT will bring Andrew Follows, a Melbourne-based, internationally exhibited blind photographer, to Adelaide to work with a group of 10 VIP participants to explore the rich potential and challenges of being a blind photographer.

Adelaide based photographer Sam Oster will assist Andrew throughout the project, and participants will meet weekly with Sam for further support, advice and skills development.

From the exhibition a selection of images would also be available as series of Braille-embossed postcards describing the images in the artists own words.

This project, being led by a successful artist who is legally blind ensures that participants have a role model to whom they can relate and, in an understanding and non-judgemental setting, will enable them to develop skills and complete a task, which gives a sense of satisfaction and achievement without the risk of failure.

Workshops

Challenges are unique to each blind photographer, but centre around how blind photographers can capture images with only partial or no use of the viewfinder. Andrew will explore the assistance offered through adaptive technologies, audio descriptions and assistants (creative enablers) allowing participants to build skills to create amazing pieces of art.

A second common challenge is reviewing their work. For the partially sighted a large screen monitor on a PC can assist the issue and for the more profoundly blind, Andrew will explore tactile and sonified displays as well as working from descriptive feedback from trusted colleagues.

The workshop program is structured to give both the time and the support for the participants to achieve best possible outcomes and is flexible enough to respond to the needs of the participants and the creativity of the artists.

About the Artists:

Andrew Follows is an inspiring, and rapidly, established photographer, with a social conscience. He is legally blind, and respects and loves his best friend, Eamon – his guide dog. Andrew has retinitis pigmentosa, which has rendered one eye completely blind, and ever diminishing, tunnel vision in the other.  Basically, he can see three metres to most people’s seventy metres, and through a foggy haze. Whilst many may see this as a reason for not engaging fully in the life of the wider community, this has not been the case for Andrew.

In 2000 Andrew completed a B.A. in Community Development at Victorian University and in 2008 was sponsored by Photography Made Easy in Melbourne to complete an eight-month digital photography course. His photographs are professional, and unique.  He has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions, conducted photography workshops for both sighted and non-sighted people and has been invited to speak at various public events. Projects and commissions include City of Greater Shepparton Council – community art mural with Michael Leunig, Official Photographer for Simon Mansell’s book, A Joker’s Right of Reply, and Promotional and documentary photographer for HMAS Castlemaine – Melbourne’s World War II Museum Ship. He is currently working in partnership with students at RMIT, assisting in the development of a digital camera device enabling people with disabilities, vision impairment, learning difficulties and seniors more access to the photographic medium,

The key to the world around Andrew is through his camera. The lens becomes his eyes, the shutter his very existence, the computer his medium of vision enabling him, for the first time, to see the world more clearly. Through his photographic images, Andrew is challenging the Visual Arts world. He has a strong desire to make a difference, and to challenge those who can see, in a positive and constructive form.

Sam Oster is a photo-media artist who lectures in photography at the Centre for Creative Photography and runs the photographic studio Silvertrace at the Headquarters Studio arts collective in Richmond. She exhibits regularly in group and solo shows and was invited to exhibit in the core program of the Ballarat International Foto Biennale in 2009, where she showed both still and moving-image work alongside International and Australian artists. This work, which addresses issues of technology, waste, and energy, was featured on the cover of Art Almanac in June 2010.

Across a 12-year career as a stills photographer in the creative industries, Sam has worked on a range of feature films, tv series, short films and documentaries, photographing well-known personalities like Natalie Imbruglia, Hugo Weaving, and Toni Collette. Her recent clients for commissioned work include Restless Dance Theatre, Ladykillers, Flugle Theatre Company, Windmill, Carclew, as well as many independent artists. Sam produces and curates moving-image work as an extension of her arts practice. In 2005 she presented South Australia’s inaugural dance film festival ‘Cinetic’ as curator-in-residence at the Media Resource Centre.

Sam has had extensive experience lecturing in photography and leading community workshop projects including North East Networks: workshops for adults with Aquired Brain Injury, Arts in Action: Series of 8 workshops & exhibition for adults with disabilities and Adelaide Fringe Festival: cyanotype workshops at Community Centres. Her interest in working in community context comes from a passionate exploration of capturing diversity and an interest in collaborative practice.            http://www.silvertrace.com/

Please contact Martin Sawtell, DATT Project Office, Email:  msawtell@cansa.net.au  for more information.

Andrew cannot cover all costs for this one of experience to show case his photographic skills, so Andrew is seeking help with sponsorship and assistance from interested partners both in Australia and Internationally. While in Edinburgh, Andrews aims to collaborate with established UK organisations for vision impaired photographers to learn so he can develop a similar network back in Australia so he can strengthen the relationships between Australia and the UK creative industries.

Photography by blind and vision impaired artists is fast developing into a new and somewhat special genre in the field of contemporary art, however in Australia there are very few opportunities for networking and training in the field of photography. Andrew is hoping to over come this gap by taking part in the Edinburgh Festival

In the UK, there is an established network for artists with disabilities and vision impaired photographers. Going to Scotland will afford Andrew the opportunity to work alongside other vision impaired photographers, thus contributing to his artistic development and establishing international networks for further development in this field of art. It will provide many opportunities for photographers from both countries to exchange their skills and knowledge in this limited and highly specialized field.

Andrew will be taking 20 selected works to show case his photography in an  exhibition as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival in August. Andrew will also use his time in Scotland to build a new body of works, which will be created for future exhibitions in Melbourne.

Andrew has been collaborating with Australian born Edinburgh based curator Kate Martin who says “I am delighted to assist Andrew with his ambitious residency and exhibition project. Andrew’s project will not only forge exciting new connections between the creative communities in Australia and Scotland, but also inspire people and challenge preconceived ideas about the abilities of blind and partially sighted people and their place within the arts sector. Working with Andrew so far has proved a very enjoyable and enlightening experience and I look forward to welcoming him to the Edinburgh community next year.”

If you wish to help Andrew and his Guide Dog Eamon to have an experience of a life time, please contact Andrew direct on his email, andrew@blinkiephotography.com.au

These 2 images below was a hard choice to pick, from over 50 plus photographs that Andrew captured on the night but they give a great representation on the end results.

St Pauls Melbourne

st Pauls Melbourne

12 Images have been carefully selected to make up this wonderful high quallity limited edition colour calendar.

The cost of the calendars are $25 plus $5 postage. Thank you for your support  to ensure Andrews dream in attending the Edinburgh Arts Festival. On how to get this limited edition calendar, please contact us at, Email: blinkiephotography@iprimus.com.au

Special thanks to In House Press Melbourne for supporting Blinkie Photography

2012 Andrew Follows Night Photography Calendar

Andrew is proud to received his 2012 Vision Australia calendar. Andrew has a photograph of a beach sunset scene where it is featured for the month of March. The calendars / diaries are now on sale through Vision Australia website