Juan Torre interview on the BBC World Service programme Outlook

Journalist Marco Silva interviews Juan Torre for the BBC World Service’s programme Outlook. Click on the banner below. Once the webpage opens, drag the slider to 27:00 to get the start of the interview. At 34:47, Juan starts talking about Clive and his tactile image.

 

"Spanish photojournalist Juan Torre began to suffer from Behcet's syndrome - a rare disease that left him almost totally blind by the age of 30. Despite being unable to make out more than shapes and colours, Juan didn't give up photography altogether. He talks about how he adapted his techniques and came up with an idea to help blind people explore his photos through touch."

There are more details and photos on the Outlook Facebook page : scroll down to May 14th and 15th. 

One of their listeners, Ojambo Muza, commented, "Thanks Juan, this is one way to show our brothers and sisters with disabilities that the world cares about them and that they are part of us!"

Clive feeling and seeing the tactile image

Without doubt, Clive regaining some of his vision has made his first interaction with the tactile image of his mate, the Sheffield boxer Dave Howe, much easier and more pleasurable. We have perhaps got a bit carried away with the idea of "seeing by feeling" and Euin Hill — a volunteer trustee of the Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind who is himself visually impaired — explained to me that sensing an image by touch takes time to learn. Euin went on to explain that a visually-impaired person will appreciate the tactile image in a different way (from a sighted person) enjoying proportion and texture. Clive's partial vision will have helped him to get a sense of this huge print. It's seems a bit too big for Clive, almost as big as his bed, so the picture had to be rotated through 90º for him to get to feel Dave's head and boxing gloves. He might be able to touch it more easily the next time the physios call help him into his grandfather's chair. 

Enjoy the video of Clive and his tactile photograph, taken by Wendy on her iPhone and edited by their friend Marcus Sarko. 

Clive gets his hands on the Spanish tactile image

Clive and his tactile photo

Wendy writes : "after several weeks of slow improvements Clive was re admitted last week to Weston Park hospital because of a build up of pressure in his brain. The staff at Weston Park were fantastic, as usual, and the following day he was feeling much better. Amazingly Clive has regained a little of his vision! He says it's very blurry but he can make out shapes and colours. 

Even the packing crate is beautiful

I spent a lot of time at the hospital this week and had forgotten that the tactile photo was due to arrive from Spain on Friday so when the bell rang, followed by a loud banging on the door, I thought that it was Clive coming back home. I opened the door to a large delivery lorry and a very cheery driver who said. "I didn't want to get it out until I knew someone was home" he then jumped up onto his lorry and heaved out a huge crate. The crate was beautifully made and had clips and carrying handles. He carried it into the hall but it had to stay there until the ambulance arrived because it was too heavy for me to carry it any further.

The crate stayed on the floor in the living room for the next few hours while Clive recovered from the journey. After lunch I unclipped and then unscrewed the lid of the crate to reveal the photo which was wrapped in yards of bubble wrap. I lifted it out and put it on the bed for Clive to undo. It was very exciting. After all the wrapping had been removed I turned the picture over and Clive said "hello Dave". 

It does seem rather large !

It was fantastic to see and feel the photo. It looks so real especially because it is almost life size. Clive is really pleased that he can see some of the image and also experience it with his hands. Marcus and Nathan came round last night to visit and see the picture Marcus ran his hands over Dave's torso and said "wow his nipples feel like nipples!" It's slightly eerie having it propped up against the fireplace because it looks so real.

Clive shelling broad beans by a window onto the garden

We'd like to thank Juan Torre, Cristina Velasco and everyone at Estudios Durero for doing such a fantastic job for us." 

Our appeal is by no means over. We're planning an exhibition of Clive's and his students photos presented in pairs of photo prints and tactile equivalents, so we're still collecting money and a big 'thank you' to everyone who has contributed so far and made this possible.

Juan Torre talks about Clive's photo.

Juan Torre visited Estudios Durero today to have a look at the completed tactile image of Clive's photo of Dave Howe before it is packed up and despatched to Sheffield. He recorded this message for Clive.

Hello Clive,

I hope you feel better now and more encouraged. I am really happy in front of your marvellous photo, which has been exceptionally well reproduced. It is fantastic, it has really good reliefs, it is the best Didú that Estudios Durero has done up to now, and is for you. It is the latest without doubt. To be able to touch the boxer Howe is incredible, is fantastic. You can follow perfectly well all the lines; you can perfectly understand the face, the eyes, the nose, and the mouth… And well, I hope that his pose as a champion encourages you also. 

I would like to tell you that actually there is another way to show the work of each one, that barriers can be overcome and that the main thing is to continue with our passion and continue doing what we know to do, this technique allows us to continue showing what we feel through the photography.

Best wishes, 
Juan Torre

The Didú tactile print of Dave Howe is nearly ready

Cristina Velasco of Estudios Durero has sent me the latest update from Spain: 

"We are already in production. Volumes and textures have been created and we have the 3D base ready on which we will reproduce the photograph. It is one of the last steps in the process, which is the high quality image printing according to the volumes, with all its tactile and visual nuances.

After that, we only need to apply the varnish which will protect the 'Didú' and then prepare it for delivery so that the "tactile photo for Clive" reaches him as soon as possible."

Details of the RNIB's tactile images.

Image 1

Marcus Sarko and Andy Brown travelled to the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) headquarters in Peterborough last thursday to meet with Sue King and Michelle Lee to discuss their tactile images. Andy reports:

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It was a fascinating meeting. We managed to talk through a lot of the rationale behind the processes that they have used working with all sorts of exhibitions for the British Museum and others.

The most striking thing for me was understanding  that what they produce is not really a version of an image itself. It’s much more useful to think of what they do as creating a package of information intended to communicate some of the content of an image, to allow blind people to create a mental map. So, they start off with a photograph, and produce a drawing based on what it has been decided are the key elements, and present this along with quite a lot of written (Braille) information.

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Image 3

This has several implications. Firstly, whilst it will still make a lot of sense to have tactile images produced and presented along with standard images, Michelle and Sue were very persuasive that the way in which blind people will actually be best able to access the information in the exhibition will be in booklet form.

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Image 5

Secondly, because the process allows the artists / curators to decide what information to communicate, we don’t have to worry about the background / extraneous noise in images as much as Marcus and I were expecting.

How it works

The technology that the RNIB use is similar to that we were shown at our first meeting; different areas on a piece of paper can be heat-treated and caused to raise, allowing bumps to appear that can be felt (image 1):

Whilst this is often used with maps and labelling, the same technology can be used to show simplified versions of images, like this Egyptian mask (image 2)

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Image 7

The clever bit is that only the key parts of an image can be raised.

Image 3 shows a complete artwork simplified to get rid of background noise so that only certain elements can be felt. Then, different parts of the same image are explored further in the book in increasing detail (images 4,5,6,7), with different bits made ‘visible’ depending on what’s important. This might not necessarily be the most obvious things – in image 5, for example, you’ll notice that the damaged section of the cat has been made visible. Image 8 shows how specific you can be about what gets left out – here, all the leading in a stained glass window is shown except where it would interfere with understanding the image on the window (please note - this is actually a large-print document, hence the English characters rather than Braille).

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Image 9

This has really interesting applications for photography, because it forces the photographer’s / curator’s hand in deciding what parts of an image to communicate. This makes certain aspects of images stand out in a way you perhaps wouldn’t have noticed if viewing a normal version of the image. For example, see the barbed wire round the church wall in image 9, and the people in the theatre doorway in image 10. (image 11 and 12 are further attempts to show the texture of the process – a tricky thing to do !)

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Image 11

It can also, in my opinion, heighten the emotional impact of an image – as in images 13 and 14, an early war photograph in which the bones of the dead bodies stand out much more starkly, to me, in the tactile version.

I think the way in which this process affects the reading of an image can be a very significant aspect of this exhibition, as is the whole role of intention in photography and selecting which elements are important and the questions this raises about photography.

Andy and Marcus

Image 14

Image 13