Rosita Mckenzie is a blind photographer from Scotland. Her work unleashes her creativity and shows an amazing amount of underlying vision. She has raised awareness of visual disability in a way previously unimagined and hopes the ancient mystery of visual disability can be better understood through her work. Rosita spoke to Stuart Russell B.E.M in July 2013.
What is it about photography that you enjoy? My practice and the images I create, take people by surprise. When I first began taking photographs seriously in 2006, there were very few blind photographers around. There were even fewer totally blind female photographers. In fact, even now, some people find it a very difficult concept to grasp until they have seen my work or heard me speak about my practice.
Like many visually disabled people, I have had sight. It was in childhood but I retain vivid memories of the things I saw and experienced as a sighted person. All forms of photography fascinated me. Many years later, I became aware of visually disabled photographers, none of them women. Being totally blind, I knew I would require sighted assistance to develop such an ambitious project. In the summer of 2006 I was invited by Inverleith House Gallery at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, to photograph the Garden with the guidance of a sighted photographer, and instantly everything changed! I realized it was possible with the right assistance to be a photographer and I haven’t looked back since!