Giving Life Meaning Through Photography

. . . It always remains a perception of light. . . 

I don't feel in darkness. I feel in light.

~ Photographer Sonia Soberats

For Sonia Soberats, who lost her eyesight to glaucoma, photography has become a means to seeing what her blindness otherwise would deny. Her black-and-white and color images, which she captures using a technique she calls "light painting", are astonishing in their dream-like, other-worldly qualities.

Soberats, who is in her late 70s and began learning how to shoot in 2001, after she lost her vision (in 1991), is a member of the seeing with photography collective, a New York City-based group that collaborates with both visually impaired and sighted photographers. Recently, she was the subject of an informative and interesting post, "Visions of A Blind Photographer", at Lens, a New York Times photography blog, from which I learned that Venezuelan Wanadi Siso has produced a documentary about her. Below is a "teaser" about Siso's project, El Laberinto de lo Posible (Labyrinth of the Possible). 

In this video by Alejandra Otero, Soberats talks about her life experiences, how she came to be a photographer, and the meaning of photography in her life. 

(The Otero short is also available on Vimeo.)

Soberats's first solo was in February 2012 at Centro de Arte La Estancia in Caracas.

Sonia Soberats on Flickr

Interview with Sonia Soberats at Nothing Peripheral, July 22, 2011