JOIN USRicha Maheshwari,a 26-year-old fashion photographer highlighted the problems faced by blind kids through 2016 calendar launch, as part of ‘Silencing the Dark’ campaign.
The campaign is dedicated to National Association for the Blind (NAB), an initiative towards blindness awareness to convince people for pledging to donate eyes.
‘Silencing the Dark’, was an artistic capture of how a blind person sees the world and what difference one can make in their (the blind) lives to make it better. The campaign ended with a fashion show featuring blind kids along with the models walking down the ramp.
“One may think how can a fashion show be related to a social cause, but it is my field. And through this, I have appropriated fashion with many causes like, for the welfare of animals, persons with disabilities, orphans and destitute. I can communicate the best in this medium,” says Maheshwari.
According to her, some blindness is incurable and some blindness is completely avoidable and hence eye donation is not the only solution.
“I also wanted the children to feel special for at least a day. Walking down a ramp and how it is done is visualised by each one of us, but they can’t. It’s a new experience for them,” she tells Metrolife.
There are various themes explored in the calendar, such as ‘silencing’ the trafficking of blind people, visualising how a blind experiences the world only on feelings, how new technology can help crucial cases of blindness and one such for each month of the year.
Maheshwari has been doing calendars since last three years. As per her studio’s yearly ritual to undertake a social cause with an intention to bring about some change, she thought of doing a campaign on blindness awareness. They partnered with NAB that is working in educating and employing the blind.
She elucidates that during the calendar shoot she interacted with many visually impaired people.
“One thing that baffled me was when a girl told me that ‘we can work anytime, as we don’t possess the idea of day and night’. There are many such moving conversations I had with the blind school children. It is overwhelming to see that they are happy and not apologetic at all at their condition.”