blind musicians

the blind are the photographer's ideal subject. or at least those blind to the photographer's presence. 'I felt that one could get a quality of being through the fact that the person did not know he was being photographed,' paul strand once said.





all masks are off, the guard is down, there is no posing, no pretense, there is only truth, a faithfulness to the subject, 'a quality of being'. and when the photographer's subject is blind, the photographer in a sense becomes the blind subject's eyes, seeing him the way he is unable to see himself.







which brings me to blind musicians. i seem to encounter them a lot when travelling, usually meeting them around ports or terminals or streets, as if they were there to "see off" travellers on their way, even if they themselves could not see.







or perhaps, to remind travelers of their own eyes, by showing them what had been lost.





but what the blind musicians have not lost is music. which, to me, gives photographs of blind musicians a certain silent power.





the photograph may show what the blind musician can no longer see, but it is also a photograph of the music of that moment that we, the viewers, could no longer hear.



photos taken in camiguin, december 2009; mactan cebu international airport, november 2009 and march 2010; pier 4 terminal, port of cebu, january 2010; downtown cebu city, january 2010 and may 2010; fort san pedro, november 2004.