Re: [Leica] Autofocus Leica R...Barry

["lea" <lea@whinydogpress.com>]

What a great, sad, sad story. Thanks for taking the time and the heart to
share it.
Lea

- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Barney Quinn" <Barney.Quinn@noaa.gov>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 10:32 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Autofocus Leica R


> 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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>

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