Making the decision to remove your eye is difficult for anyone, and even more so for photographers. Unlike blind musicians who can still hear their music, photographers must have their sense of sight to be able to compose photos properly. James Fabri is among those who have chosen to continue pursuing photography despite having only one eye:
Despite his disability, James has still turned out some amazing photographs. It just goes to show how capable we all are if only we had the right frame of mind and the passion to do so.
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I lost the sight on my right eye 13yrs ago and I go on shooting photos.
I don’t feel disabled or limited neither people feel this looking both at me and at my photos.
43 years ago (15ys old) I had an accident which left me with only one eye. My doctors were devastated as they had performed eye surgery when I was only 7 and I was the only really successful one at that time. While not belittling the pain and suffering he has gone through this is a load of bs. There are many things you have to get used to, distance perception, balance etc, playing Squash was a huge help, half my partners didn’t know and I got to play club league. What hasn’t been mentioned it the heightening of all other senses – smell, hearing, touch and taste. I drive my family crazy with the things I can hear, taste and smell which they can’t and I’m an excellent driver. If I’d this film at the time of my accident I would never have coped and just got on with my life. Now days, 99% of people I meet have no idea I have only one eye and I don’t tell them either, why would I need to?
After a total of eight surgeries over a period of about 18 months, I am left with about 40% of my vision in my right eye and have lost about half of the peripheral vision on that side as well. I don’t look at it as a disability and it hasn’t affected my photography except that I now look through the viewfinder with my left eye, which took some getting used to as I was right-eye dominant. I agree with the other comments that there’s really no news here. There does seem to be a lot of self-pitying, though, heightened by maudlin music and cinematic tricks to make the subject seem isolated and alone. Makes me wonder if this was done for a class project. James: get over yourself. As you said toward the end, there are a lot of people in worse circumstances.
Don’t you have more important things to teach us instead of this CRAP. Boo-Hoo he has one good eye, that all I use when I compose a photo through the viewfinder so what’s the big deal with him!!
What puzzles me is who decided this was a story worth sharing on this site. I understand that people create stories for themselves of their trials and challenges, but I didn’t see this is as a story of overcoming a significant disability when it comes to photography. As to the video itself, I found it very poor filmmaking to include closeups of moist meat and swirling miso soup while James was describing how awful his eye looked and how he had it surgically removed (at the same time you see James skewering a circle of green onion on a chopstick and then eating it). I won’t be able to look at Japanese food the same way again!
Wanted to add that I was not trying to take anything away from his abilities at all. The choice he made is not one I would like to make. At least people like me have the choice to cover up one or other of our eyes.
I always thought that would be an advantage. You can see first hand the 2d nature that photography has. I have toyed with the idea of wearing a patch to get a live view of the 2d nature of the art. A little theory I have is naturally gifted artists have a fault that allows them to see the world in a flattened 2d way. Check it out for yourself. Drawing or photography subjects become easier to draw or spot while viewing the world
using only one eye.
I work with a bunch of visually impaired photographers who would be pleased to have one good eye to share round! This guy is breaking our hearts.
What a load of sentimental crap! I have only limited vision in one eye since birth and have been a photographer for 30 years, including photographing over 300 weddings! How many eyes do you need to look through the viewfinder of a dslr (Or a Mamiya TLR) I must be a freaking sensation! Please do an article about my work and my disability….. Please!