I met Patti Schonlau outside the Botanical Garden about a month ago. I was with reporter Doug Moore working on a story that he generated. He picked a very visual place and decided to tell the story of Patti – who is blind – experiencing it. As we walked down the paths, Patti perked up my own senses. I was feeling the plants she felt and smelling things I wouldn’t have ordinarily noticed. I met with her a second time to gather audio of her impressions of the garden to pair with the photos I made. When I arrived at her office, she slid two photo albums across the table for me to look at. It felt like all the wheels in my head stopped turning, and then I thought, “This woman values pictures that she can’t see.”

She’s already told me that she can’t wait to see the paper in the morning. When I photograph people, I hope they like the image I make. When photographing Patti, it occured to me that she will never see the photos I took of her. You’d think that notion would make me less nervous about whether she’ll like the photo in tomorrow’s paper. But after being exposed to her joy of sharing photos, I’m more nervous. How will the person sitting next to her describe the photo to Patti? How will her daughter tell her she looks? The image in her mind will be created by the reactions of others to the photo. And in sharing the photo of herself, she will begin to see the photo. She will see details and nuances in the photo that the eye can’t see.

See the audio slideshow here.