Learning photography has made these visually impaired children more confident at an early age. Express Parenting met fashion photographer Richa Maheshwari, who is helping these kids express their love for photography, fuelled by the desire to be seen on social media.

Children at National Association for the blind are being taught the art of photography.

At the National Association for the Blind (NAB), a young boy came up to me and urged me to go through his social media page. A student of class 11 or 12, the boy eagerly scrolled down the page on his smartphone to show quite a number of photographs of monuments, birthday parties and those of friends and family. All the photos were clicked and uploaded on social media by the boy himself, who is visually impaired. Further into the conversation, the boy revealed that he composes songs, raps, and runs his own YouTube page.

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On a bright Sunday morning, Express Parenting had reached the institution to meet some visually challenged girls and boys, of class 8-12, who have been learning the art of photography from award-winning fashion photographer Richa Maheshwari. Flaunting their prowess, the kids asked some of us to pose, tell them our exact location, after which they adjusted their camera accordingly with some help from Maheshwari, and kept clicking photos and selfies too. And one wouldn’t have been able to tell they were clicked by visually disabled children unless one witnessed it firsthand.

The kids love their guru of photography and the feeling seems mutual. “I have been associated with NAB for a couple of years. The kids are really inspiring, in the way they love life. Their positivity moves me every time I meet them. Initially, they kept asking me about my photo shoots and were in awe of the glamour attached to it. I always wanted to do something for them and the best way to do that was to teach them photography,” Maheshwari told Express Parenting.

How social media inspired photography

Most of the kids are very active on social media and they love to upload their pictures on online platforms. They have their own Facebook and Instagram pages like every other teenager. The feeling of sharing moments captured in self-created frames and the instant reaction on the photos excite them. And their parents and friends are equally enthusiastic and extremely supportive, the children said. After all, the virtual world is among those few spaces that can blur differences between people, in this case, the difference in physical (dis)ability. Initially, these kids clicked pictures only on their mobile phone but they were eager to learn more. And the attraction of social media is what marked their journey from the mobile phone to the camera.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/parenting/learning/disability-day-visually-challenged-kids-photography-camera-5472698/