Minimal eye sight has not impaired Jin Wei's fervent belief that he is still able to zoom in on the beauty of the world. In Jin Wei's eyes, a building 10 metres away is just a quivering, fuzzy blur.

Jin Wei gets ready to take a shot on Handan Lu in Shanghai. [China Daily]

But he is a fine-art photographer and the pictures he publishes in Popular Photograph, China's top photography magazine, show no sign of any such visual limitation.

"Many people can not believe a blind person can take pictures. I want to change their attitude with my pictures," he said.

Jin Wei reads a computer screen with a hand lens. [China Daily]

He uses a Canon EOS 50E with a Canon EF 70-200MM F/2.8L USM he purchased several months ago, which can ease his worries about being out of focus. The full F-stop is used most of the time in the light of his insensitivity to light. The tripod is also used to ensure he is able to obtain sharp pictures.

The EF lens serves as his eyes, which enables him to distinguish between a building and a person in the distance. But before taking the shot, he must wait for more than 20 minutes until the quivering of his vision slows down and his eyes can focus.

His hearing is an important aid to his sight in most cases. By listening carefully, he can tell where the subject is and how far away. He can take the shot of a person when he hears the laughter.

Using magnification he can search the computer screen for the pictures he has taken and show them in his tiny apartment crammed with various devices.

A smile appears on his face, adorned by thick eyeglasses, as he fumbles to show China Daily a programme he made recently.

Seeing is a luxury

Jin was born with several congenital eye diseases - cataracts, fungus hypoplasia - and he was diagnosed as being legally blind, leaving him with 20/250 vision.

What's more, what he can see is like looking at the pictures on a TV screen which is receiving interrupted signals. This is because his eyes quiver continually.

One would think photography would be the last hobby he would turn to. But this offends Jin.

"Blindness cannot deprive me of the opportunity to see the world," he said. "I want to do the things that normal people cannot easily do."

Despite his eyesight handicap, Jin since childhood developed a desire to see colours. He cried all night when he watched colour TV for the first time. He was able to see the strong colours and this gave him the chance to keep in touch with the world.

And the clear images he was able to view through a camera lens motivated him to look at the world by using F-stop and various lenses.

"For me, seeing is a luxury. The details of daily life are ignored by normal people. These details move me to tears," he said.

After graduation in 1992, Jin could not find a job because of his limited eye sight. But repeated frustration did not damp down his desire to take photos.

He bought his first camera - a fool-proof one with the money he earned from working as a tutor in the day and selling mutton kebabs at night. The camera brought him great joy and excitement because of its convenience and because it made less demand on his eye sight.

Soon, the fool-proof camera could not satisfy Jin's high expectations. The camera could not be equipped with more lenses and had no F-stop. Jin spent 2,000 yuan (US$241) - six months' worth of expenses - on a Nikon with an F-stop and changeable focus and then a Canon with more lenses.

His subjects in his early period were confined to stationary objects because he could touch them and decide from which angle to photograph them.

"If I want to take photos of the sunrise, I can feel the heat on my skin. If I want to photograph a stone, I can touch it and know angles of it before I shoot," he explained.

But a blind photographer not only needs to understand from others what he is doing but also needs financial support and instruction in technique and photographic technology.

Perseverance

When Jin fumbles in the streets and presses his face to the camera, he sometimes attracts laughter from the crowd that always gathers round. "They watch me as if I were a monkey wearing a costume."

Photography is both time-consuming and money-consuming. The Canon camera he is using costs more than 20,000 yuan (US$2,410) and the specially designed computer and its attachments total 40,000 yuan (US$4,820). Jin has never received any sponsorship from a camera manufacturer.

"What I am concerned about is how to shoot good-quality photos," he said.

Jin searches out books on photography and studies with the help of magnification. He takes breaks to rest his eyes after 10 minutes' reading before going on.

"I cannot remember how many nights I have spent reading but I have worn out five magnifying lenses," he said.

Jin's favourite subject for photographs is fire which appears as throbbing life in his eyes. He even went on a pilgrimage to the temples in Putuo Mountain to photograph the flames of the joss sticks and candles.

"Viewing fire through my camera, I seem to fathom the spirit of the world. And I sense the power of life and feel the edge of it," he said.

The power of life can also be sensed in his struggle to overcome his difficulties and to make full use of his other four senses.

Jin never saw his blindness as an insuperable barrier. He insisted on attending a normal primary school despite his eye sight and his teachers' attitudes which were to let him drop out.

His determination and desire for knowledge made him an above-average student when he graduated.

He went to a middle school for handicapped students and spent eight years learning Chinese traditional music. He was so addicted that he even could not spare time to go home. He stumbled around bookstores looking for "talking" books.

In middle school, he taught himself college music courses which gained him admission to Changchun University in Jilin Province and he studied music there for three years.

After being rejected time and time again, he finally got a job as a music and art teacher in the Nursing School of Shanghai Second Medical University. He helped to establish a Chinese traditional music band and his art courses turn to be students' favourite in the school.

Jin's goals are not limited to being a fine-art photographer. In his spare time, he spent eight years in learning Non-liner Editing system with Premiere 6.0, a professional video tool which is demanding even for professionals. With the system and a Canon digital camera, he can photograph people and scenes he cannot see clearly and he can then put them on VCDs.

He is now engaged in 3-D animation.

Jin's long-term plan is to hold a solo photography exhibition focusing on handicapped persons.

"There are photos of handicapped persons taken by normal photographers. But they cannot know what the real life of the handicapped is like. As one who is handicapped, I have a lot in common with them."

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