Artist who became blind shows realities of sight loss in new book ‘Unseen’

CapeTalk’s Pippa Hudson speaks with Joanne Bloch, author of Unseen.

Listen below:

Joanne was six months into her PhD in Fine Art when she received a shocking diagnosis that would change her life.

In 2011, she was faced with irreversible sight loss, forcing her to rethink her identity as an artist.

“It was extremely painful, but I did finish my PhD and incorporated my sight loss into my PhD process.”

- Joanne Bloch, Author - Unseen

She turned away from traditional art after that and switched her focus to writing.

“In the last two years, I have made some art again that I am quite happy with. It is difficult, but I have managed.”

- Joanne Bloch, Author - Unseen

This led to her writing her book ‘Unseen’, where she shared the challenges, insights, and frustrations of being visually impaired.

Joanne draws on her own experiences of sight loss and speaks to 20 other visually impaired South Africans to reveal the complex realities of blindness and partial sight.

In the book, she highlights the right ways and sometimes very wrong ways that people offer help to the visually impaired.

“The kind of help that is not useful is when people boss you around or just presume they need to grab your arm and pull you along.”

- Joanne Bloch, Author - Unseen

“The best way to help people is to just ask them what they need… Everyone is different.”

- Joanne Bloch, Author - Unseen

She adds that there are systemic issues that visually impaired people face that others may not even be aware of.

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For example, many banks will insist that customers make use of their apps, which are completely inaccessible for those with sight loss.

Unseen is published by Modjadji Books and is available in most bookstores for R300 to R330.

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