NAVIGATING THROUGH THE WORLD
AS A DEAF PHOTOGRAPHER SPRING 2021 | GALLERIE MAGAZINE | 12
By Arista Haas NAVIGATING THE WORLD AS A DEAF PHOTOGRAPHER HAS BOTH CHALLENGES AND REWARDS. TODAY’S CHALLENGES ARE IMPROVING MY CRAFT SKILLS, ACCESSING EDUCATIONAL EVENTS, AND COMMUNICATING WITH HEARING PEOPLE. ON THE OTHER HAND, THE AMAZING REWARDS ARE GAINED KNOWLEDGE, PLANNED TRANSITION INTO PROFESSION, NETWORKING, AND FELLOWSHIP WITH PPOC MEMBERS. Deaf since birth, I rely on my eyes for visual communication. As a bilingual Deaf person with American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken English, I have attended both deaf and mainstreamed schools as well as completing a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Alberta. I was born with profound hearing loss and now I am totally Deaf. Scary? Not at all! I am proud to be Deaf. My parents raised me to be confident but humble and be proud of who I am. Before my first day at Westlock Elementary School, my Mom requested my teachers not to allow any tokenism, and that I was to learn like every student. I am grateful for my parents’ stance because the attribute of selfsufficiency was developed at a young age, and I was able to navigate through both Deaf and hearing worlds as an adult. I have navigated the world of photography since my parents wrangled their camera off my tiny hands. I was about six years old when I discovered the wonders of photography by photographing with my parents’ camera randomly. Quite expensive that was. I had my first camera at age 9 – the famous Kodak Disc then a small point-and-shoot camera when I was a teen. The first formal
