Re: [Leica] Autofocus Leica R

["Barney Quinn" <Barney.Quinn@noaa.gov>]

Hi,

I am sorry to hear that BD is loosing his hearing. I have some sympathy for
that because I have been battling serious eye disease for the past decade. I
had to face the prospect of going blind this winter. Usually I just lurk, but
just now I feel the need to say some things, perhaps in the way of a reality
check. I'd like to tell my own story, but I think my Grandfather's tale is
more to the point. Let me tell you about his.

Yes, there are people in this world who have managed through sheer grit,
determination, and raw talent to overcome blindness, deafness, and illness
and to make world class contributions to their fields. Beethoven was stone
deaf when he wrote his Ninth symphony. James Joyce was going blind and in
extreme pain when he wrote Ulysses. The noted percussionist Evelyn Glynne is
deaf. They are the exceptions. He, I think, is more of the rule

My Grandfather, Papa Harry was a printer. An old fashioned lithographer who
specialized in very high quality six color press work. I have a box in my
basement with some of his tools in it. I also have his gold watch. They are
among my most prized possessions. I am honored to have them. He worked for
the Wickersham press in New York. I'd love to have an example of his work,
but I have no clue as to how in the world I would ever go about tracking such
a thing down.

He had an affair when he was in his late fifties. My Grandmother, a difficult
woman who ran our clan with an iron fist, found out. He was in a very serious
car accident. His girlfriend died. He all but died. My Grandmother threw him
out of the family and my Mom and her sisters went along with it. We were all
told he was dead. One Sunday afternoon years later my Mom said, "By the way,
your Papa Harry is coming over for dinner tonight!" Say WHAT, Mom.

He had gone blind from glaucoma. He lost his legs to complications of
diabetes. He lost his work. He sat in a chair in his house for over thirty
years with only the memory of his girl friend, who from what little I know
and can find out was a kind and loving woman, to keep him going. His neighbor
was a lush whose wife wouldn't let him drink in the house. He would bring my
Grand Dad his dinner in exchange for some alcohol. He would stay for as long
as it took to down a couple of doubles and then he would go home. That was
all the human contact Papa Harry had for years.

Finally his health deteriorated to the point where it became a crisis. My Mom
got a call from the public health nurse. The short version of the
conversation is that the nurse told my Mom she didn't much care what the
*&%$# our family issues were this was a major crisis, and we had to do
something. My kid brother who had just drank his way out of law school for
the second time was sent to clean things up. It had taken a year for my
Grandfather to actually go blind. During that year he had organized and
labeled everything in his house so that when someone came to help him he
could say, "Yes it's in the third drawer on the right. It's labeled." Only no
one ever came.

When my brother started the Herculean task of cleaning up Papa Harry's House
he told my brother that he could whatever he needed to do. He did, however,
say that there was a suite case in his closet. It wasn't hurting anything,
and please don't bother it. It turns out that it was the suit case his
girlfriend had with them on the trip during which she was killed. That's all
the had, all those years. He held onto it to the end. This story still haunts
me. I'd love to know who she was, or to speak with her family, but I doubt
that will ever, happen, either.

Please, please, please. Blindness doesn't mean what sighted people think it
means. Darkness isn't what you think it means until you have had to look at
it with your own failing eyesight. I am telling you this story because I wnat
you to know what comes to my mind when people start tossing around cliches
about disability.

Barney



Johnny Deadpan wrote:

> BDs dumbest post ever. He'll regret it in the morning.
>
> BD, it's not a question of political correctness. I have often pondered
> the loss of my sight. Not all blind photographers are blind - can't see
> nuthin - blind. Many have some percentage of their vision. As far as I
> am concerned, if I became stone blind I would find it hard to continue
> to photograph BUT until that point I would continue. So long as there
> is some potential for feedback, the project has merit. My eyesight now
> is not so great but it doesn't seem to have affected my ability to take
> pix.
>
> I think that once the feedback loop is broken, one would be less a
> photographer than a producer/director. Incidentally, I have no problem
> whatsoever with working as a film director while blind.
>
> On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at 07:57  PM, bdcolen wrote:
>
> > Okay, I can't help myself...I am going to be totally politically
> > incorrect and ROFLOL! (And, yes, I've seen the book of photographs by
> > blind "photographers."
> >
> > I know: I'm cruel. I have no imagination, blah, blah, blah, blah. Get a
> > grip, folks! Alternatively sighted people are BLIND. They CAN NOT SEE.
> > Photography is a VISUAL medium. It requires VISION.
> >
> > I don't care if a blind person can point an autofocus camera at a
> > subject he or she hears and "take a picture." An Ape can do the same
> > thing, and I am not going to take Ape photography seriously either.
> >
> > I know, I know, there are a bunch of Thai elephants that paint and a
> > bunch of nuts who pay allot of money for the paintings.
> >
> > I'll tell you something, when I lose the remainder of my hearing - I
> > now
> > suffer from moderate hearing loss in one ear and a severe lost in the
> > other, and wear two hearing aids, I am NOT going to apply for a job as
> > a
> > freaking MUSIC critic! ;-)
> >
> > B. D.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Kit
> > McChesney | acmefoto
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 7:37 PM
> > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > Subject: RE: [Leica] Autofocus Leica R
> >
> >
> > Speaking of photographers with poor eyesight, or even more amazing,
> > photographers who are legally or functionally blind, Aperture just
> > published last year a gorgeous book on the subject of blind
> > photographers, titled appropriately, Shooting Blind. It is a moving
> > volume, and poses some interesting questions about how we see, and what
> > we see. There are many blind photographers ... Evgen Bavcar, Flo Fox,
> > Gerardo Nigenda, among others. Bavcar has some interesting things to
> > say
> > about the differences between the visual, and the visible.
> >
> > "My task is the reunion of the visible and the invisible worlds;
> > photography allows me to pervert the established method of perception
> > amongst those who see and those who don't." ... and ...  "Each photo I
> > create must be perfectly ordered in my head before I shoot. I hold the
> > camera to my mouth in order to photograph those I speak to. Autofocus
> > helps me, but I can manage on my own: it is simple, my hands measure
> > the
> > distance and the rest is achieved by the desire for images that
> > inhabits
> > me."
> >
> > I suspect that even with their visual difference ("seeing" differently
> > from most of the rest of the world) that not all blind or visually
> > impaired photographers use autofocus ... focus is not necessarily the
> > requisite hallmark of a photographic image. Don't we use the unfocused
> > as a tool of expression? What about bokeh? (Thanks, Mark R!)
> >
> > Kit
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of John
> > Collier
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 4:27 PM
> > To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> > Subject: Re: [Leica] Autofocus Leica R
> >
> >
> > I used to agree with Doug but have since run across a few people who
> > have such poor eyesight they need auto focus. Mind you that is not very
> > many people for the plethora of AF cameras out there...
> >
> > No plans for AF here,
> >
> > John Collier
> >
> > On Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at 03:56 PM, Douglas Herr wrote:
> >
> >> lea <lea@whinydogpress.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> I'd be first in line to have one....
> >>
> >> The combination of an APO lens and an SL, SL2, R8 or R9 viewfinder
> >> makes focussing too easy to make AF worth discussing (IMHO).
> >
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>
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