Image: "A Hill Hut," 2019 © Pranav Lal. See more at The Photographers' Gallery.
Pranav Lal from New Delhi can "see", despite having been born blind, with the help of technology which turns live camera images into sounds. The pitch of the sounds denotes the elevation of objects, while the volume defines brightness. By learning to interpret the subtleties of the noises, users of "The vOICe" can have a form of functional sight. Pioneered in the '80s, The vOICe has been undergoing constant improvement and adaptation thanks to active users like Lal, who share their experiences and discuss new ideas for the toolset on the inventor's website, Seeing With Sound. Initially, Lal shared his photographs on Seeing With Sound mailing list as he started using the vOICe and learning how to interpret its sounds. He explains, "I needed to share with the world what I was looking at so that they could answer my questions."
Eventually, however, photography became a genuine hobby for Lal. He's been exploring and travelling, and sharing his art with the world, connecting with other photographers and learning about the similarities and differences between his experience and the experiences of sighted photographers. "Most of my work is with light, shadow and shape," he explains. "What I have discovered ... is (sighted photographers) also do some work with color."
For the moment, the ongoing pandemic has halted Mr. Lal's travels, but once he can, he says he hopes to travel to and photograph the Kamchatka mountains in Russia, and even take photos of the seafloor, to "see what things look like under the ocean."
