Issra Ismail: Visually-impaired Egyptian photographer depends on sound and touch to take photos

 

Have you ever heard about a photographer who can't see the beauty of nature or objects. But she presents the beauty and flaunts the colours with her camera  just like other  professional photographers. She flaunted the colour she did not know, she reflects the luminous side of her darkness she always feels because of her lack of vision. She distinguishes the phenomenal beauty of nature through her camera while she is absent from her eyes.

Israa Ismail Youssef, a  22-year-old  visually impaired photographer from Alexandria, Egypt, who relies on her senses of hearing and touch to click pictures. Israa graduated from the Arabic Language Department at the Faculty of Arts at Alexandria University, and fell in love with photography, even though it seemed impossible at first. She is considered the first female photographer in Egypt who faced all the difficulties to reach her dream, which seemed impossible at first.

Issra travels for an assignment with her mother

Israa Ismail visual impairability did not stop her to imagine people and places and even to do a job as a photographer. She has now made herself capable enough to capture the pics of humans and objects through her insight. She learned photography as a challenge and proved herself as a good photographer. 

By relying on her imagination and after extensive training, she can take amazing photographs. It seems like Israa subjects call out 'I'm here' while she holds her camera and snaps pictures of Alexandrian daily life. Now, Israa proved that taking a good photo does not require that one can see well.

The photographer gets clicked with the sun setting in the background 

Israa Ismail said to Youssef Al-Husseini, on the “Ninth” program broadcast on Channel One on Egyptian TV,  "I chose photography because I always wanted to study mass media and I tried every way possible to enter, but I found out that in order for me to be admitted, I would have to find a way to pass the photography assignment. So I remained in my college and took photography courses so I could learn and grow, until I found an initiative by a photographer Khaled Farid. We spoke and then I was surprised that instead of him teaching me how to take photographs with my smartphone first, he directly taught me using a camera."

“I love theatre and art in general, I knew that there was a play by the artist Yahya Al-Fakhrani, I went to the theatre and sat behind Dr. Yahya Al-Fakhrani, and after the conference, I went out to photograph the actors, photographed him and walked.” Which raised his surprise and great admiration for the pictures”- she added.

Ismail uses touch to feel out the dimensions of her subjects, she also asks people to speak up to her. She talks with people during filming until you know the direction of their faces, and extends her hand in peace to feel how tall the person is going to photograph, then go back for a distance of 2 metres and start taking pictures, after placing the camera on the automatic system, to take the picture in the correct position.

Issra has turned her disability into her greatest gift

The pictures were shaky at first and people did not take their correct positions, then she mastered the matter, until she participated in the filming of several important forums, including the play “Yama in the bursa Ya Hawi”, presented by the Egyptian artist, Yahya Al-Fakharani, on the stage in the recent period, and I picked up several Important pictures at the Cairo International Book Fair in its latest version, and also one of the exhibitions that was held in the Library of Alexandria recently, to prove with its camera that the blind have a desire to be guided by the light of achievements.

image source: reddiff.com