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Seeing Beyond Sight

CDS exhibit looks into the world of blind teen-agers

An opening reception for the exhibit will be held May 23

When Tony Deifell first saw the photograph of cracks in the sidewalk, he thought it was a mistake.

Then the photographer -- one of his students at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in Raleigh -- explained its significance. People with the privilege of sight step over the cracks every day, explained Leuwynda Forbes, his student. But her cane gets stuck in them, which causes her problems.

This kind of lesson in appreciating the visual world in a new way is among the purposes of Seeing Beyond Sight, an exhibition at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies. It will be on view from May 21-July 8.

The exhibition is about "seeing -- about how we all see and don't see," Deifell says.

The exhibition, based on Deifell's book of the same name, includes photos from his work with blind and visually impaired children at the school, where he co-taught photography for five years with Dan Partridge (now with Duke's Center for Documentary Studies), Shirley Hand and Jessica Toal.

Melody Heath, another student, said that she took photos from unusual perspectives, such as looking sideways or up a tree, and doing so helped her "look at situations in my life differently."

"You get some of the photos the first time you see them," Deifell says.

At an event May 23, visitors will experience for themselves what it's like to take photographs without using their sense of sight. Partridge, Hand and Deifell will give talks about their work at 7 p.m. There also will be screenings of short scenes from an upcoming film about the students.

For the students, taking photographs empowered them. "No one expected these kids to be able to take pictures," Deifell says. And, like the cracks in Leuwynda's photograph, the exhibit is significant on many levels.

"This exhibit is an attempt to face those racial, gender and economic cracks that cross all of our lives," Deifell says, adding "if our work is to make this world a better place, we need each other to see across them."