Flo Fox died on March 2, 2025. I had never heard of her but she apparently was a prolific street photographer in New York City. What caught my attention in her obituary was the fact that she was born blind in one eye. She felt it was an advantage as a photographer because she didn’t have to close the blind eye when she took a photo and that she did not see three-dimensionally (3D) which meant she saw the scene as the image would appear as a photo print in two dimensions (2D).
I can relate. I was not born blind but beginning as a teenager I have lost most of my vision in one eye. Besides seeing the world in two dimensions, there is also a loss of depth perception. Like Flo Fox, despite the limitations to my vision, I see the positive side of the handicap. I do see the world as flat and my photographs look exactly as I saw the composition through the camera viewfinder.
It is believed that the artist Rembrandt may have been stereoblind which would have aided him in flattening what he saw for the production of 2D works. Scientists have suggested that more artists seem to have stereoblindness when compared with a sample of people with stereo acuteness (normal stereo vision).
Stereoblindness is defined as the inability to see in 3D using stereopsis, or stereo vision, resulting in an inability to perceive stereoscopic depth by combining and comparing images from the two eyes. Individuals with only one functioning eye have this condition by definition since the visual input from the second eye does not exist.
I have had extremely limited vision in one eye for so long that I cannot remember what a 3D world looks like. I don’t know whether this has made me a better photographer or is it something that I had to adjust to and my photographic output would have been the same.
Sleeping Mind Photography 