Art and Literature

When Pete Eckert found out he was going to lose his sight to retinitis pigmentosa 27 years ago, he was well on his way to becoming an architect, receiving acceptances from graduate programs. One day a doctor coolly told him, he had RP and left the room without further comment. It was only later while listening to Dr. Dean Edell, on a San Francisco TV network, that he learnt RP is a genetic eye condition that leads to permanent blindness, and understood that he would go completely blind.

John Bramblitt

John Bramblitt lost his vision in 2001 when he was 30 years old due to complications from epilepsy. His initial responses were exactly what you might expect: sadness, frustration, and anger. He continued taking classes, and eventually graduated with a degree in English. But he became depressed. He had always loved to draw and write, and now blindness had robbed him of his creative outlets.

Esref Armagan

Esref Armagan
Artist

“No one can call me blind. I can see more with my fingers than most sighted people do with their eyes” This is what Esref Armagan says about himself, and rightly so.

Lisa Fittipaldi

Artist

Visual impairment : Vasculitis

Born: 1948

The mind’s eye is something we have all heard of. Lisa Fittipaldi goes on to show us what it really is. Lisa is an incredible artist who began to paint only after she lost her sight.

It all started when her husband thrust a child’s watercolour box on her so she could get over her depression and stress that had overpowered her when she learnt her loss of sight was permanent.

Ved Mehta

Writer

Nature of visual impairment: Went blind at three years

Born: 21 March, 1934

Ved (Prakash) Mehta, the fifth of seven children and second son of Doctor Amolak Ram Mehta and Shanti (Mehra) Mehta, was born in Lahore, in the Punjab, then in British India, and now in Pakistan.

Tom Sullivan

Actor, singer, author, producer

Visual impairment: Blind due to oxygen oversupply during incubation at birth

Born: 27 March 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA

"Any negative can be turned into positive." This is one of the many "Sullivan's Rules". As an actor, singer, author, producer and motivational speaker, he empowers those around him with his lifelong commitment to achieve.

Born prematurely, Tom was administered an over dose of oxygen while in the incubator. Tom lost his eyesight. But, he never allowed blindness to restrict his way of life.

Binod Bihari Mukherjee

A recipient of Padma Vibhushan, Binod Bihari Mukherjee was an artist with diverse interests. His creativity was so intense that it found its way of expression not only in form of paintings but he also murals and sculptures.