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Photographer Tony Deifell teaches blind teenagers the art of photography and has compiled a book, entitled Seeing Beyond Sight, of their works. It is a very interesting idea, giving something to teenagers they thought they could never have.

Unusual as the idea may seem at first, putting cameras in the hands of visually impaired children proved to be extremely fruitful — both for the photographers, who found an astonishing new means of self-expression, and for the viewers of their images, for whom this is an entirely new kind of dreamlike and intuitive creation. Even before you know that these pictures were taken by blind teenagers, they are striking in their use of light and composition, and haunting in their chiaroscuro intensity.

Accompanying the images are the students’ own words and captions — in which we see how much the taking of pictures came to mean to them and how the creative process works in ways rarely experienced. This is a volume that speaks with rare inspirational power.

You can take look inside the book or browse some of the videos, interviews with the photographers.

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