Wassily Kandinsky, in an effort to explain bodily reactions toward form and color, wrote “Colour is a means of exerting a direct influence upon the soul. Colour is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano, with its many strings.” Kandinsky was a synaesthete, meaning that his relationship towards color was informed equally by his relationship with sound and music. The fusion of the two senses is clearly visible in his works, as he aimed to transcend the boundaries between each separate mode of perception.

The nature of the photographic medium is playing with light, one form of energy, to evoke surroundings, situations, and ideas. When one sense is diminished, the others are heightened, creating unique perceptive experiences from the remaining information.

Blind Light focuses on two extreme examples, inspired by A Gathering of the Tribes’ owner Steve Cannon’s blindness, and the synaesthetic experience of two senses intertwining to become one. Restriction and multiplicity become central themes from within which further visual exploration can arise. Restricted to photography as the sole medium, these works challenge, manipulate, and describe sound, touch, smell, and taste to re-define and further the possibilities and essence of photography as a transcendental medium through matter, energy, experience, and content.

Curated by Ana Maria Bezanilla and Deondre Davis