Photographer Creatively Explores His Deteriorating Vision Through Collaboration

Matt Cetta, who was identified with the degenerative eye illness Retinitis Pigmentosa, has reworked his expertise of imaginative and prescient loss into artwork by way of a brand new collaboration with fellow photographer Christina DeOrtentiis. Together they discover resilience, blindness, and the evolving which means of sight by way of their venture, Photogenic Alchemy.

Chemistry, Time, and Chance

When New York-based photographer Matt Cetta first launched his experimental movie sequence Photogenic Alchemy over a decade in the past, the venture was a examine in transformation. Using analog and various processes, Cetta explored how chemistry, time, and likelihood may alter a picture, leaving magnificence in imperfection. What he couldn’t have identified then was how deeply transformation would later form his life, his profession, and his relationship to seeing itself.

Years after that early work, Cetta was identified with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye illness that progressively narrows imaginative and prescient and might finally result in blindness. The situation pressured him to rethink not solely how he sees the world but in addition how he makes artwork inside it. Photography, as soon as a simple act of remark, grew to become an act of resilience and redefinition. What started as a medium constructed round management and precision developed right into a apply grounded in instinct, belief, and acceptance of the unknown.

Recently, Cetta teamed up along with his longtime good friend and fellow School of Visual Arts alum Christina DeOrtentiis, a portrait photographer whose work emphasizes intimacy, texture, and emotional connection. Together, they created a collaborative portrait sequence that explores blindness and resilience by way of image-making. The work merges Cetta’s lived expertise with DeOrtentiis’s interpretive eye, inviting viewers to think about how images can translate inside experiences which are typically invisible. Their collaboration not solely challenges visible assumptions but in addition reimagines how notion and empathy intersect inside the artistic course of.

Adapting the Craft

For Cetta, adapting his strategy to images has been each technical and emotional. The shift required not solely rethinking the way in which he bodily handles a digicam but in addition how he measures success as an artist. Once obsessive about sharpness and precision, Cetta has realized to embrace unpredictability, discovering which means within the moments the place management slips away and intuition takes over.

“I’ve learned not to trust my eyes as much,” Cetta explains.

“I used to shoot everything on manual. In fact, Photogenic Alchemy was made with a modified Holga camera that I focused by estimating the distance between me and the subject, then aligning the lens with a small pictogram of a head, people, a group of people, or a mountain. Now I rely heavily on autofocus. Thankfully, camera technology and focusing speeds have reached a level that allows me to depend on them.”

Retinitis Pigmentosa impacts Cetta’s peripheral imaginative and prescient probably the most, leaving the middle comparatively intact however marked by what he describes as “visual snow.” The gradual narrowing of his visual view has made him aware of composition and lightweight, forcing him to strategy every body with a mindfulness that borders on meditation, and he started to doc the method of this thoughts shift in a weblog titled “I’m Going Blind.”

“The best way I can describe it is like watching an old motion picture shot on high-speed film. The edges of my vision constantly flicker. It’s disorienting, but it has also made me more intentional about what I look at,” he says.

Even with these challenges, Cetta continues to {photograph}. His relationship with the digicam has turn out to be deeply private, a dialogue between functionality and limitation, confidence and doubt.

“When I pick up a camera, I have to remind myself that I can still do this. I have to quiet the voice that says, ‘You’re blind, you can’t make art anymore.’ Then I open Lightroom, start editing, and think, ‘Not bad for a blind guy,’” he says.

Although he admits that motivation can come and go, he just lately started capturing once more, even dusting off his previous Holga for one more spherical of experimentation. Returning to movie, for him, is just not nostalgia; it’s an act of reconnection with the tactile and unsure, a reminder that artwork thrives in imperfection.

“It feels like coming full circle. The same camera that taught me to embrace imperfection is now teaching me to adapt,” he says.

A Collaboration Built on Trust

The partnership between Cetta and DeOrtentiis started with an sincere dialog. Before a single photograph was taken, the 2 artists frolicked unpacking what it meant to see in another way, to let go of management, and to belief one other individual with one’s vulnerability.

“We talked a lot about my experiences as someone losing vision,” Cetta says. “What led to my diagnosis, what my prognosis is, and what helps me manage day-to-day. When it came time to shoot, I showed up as myself, with my cane and my glasses, and trusted Christina to guide the process.”

DeOrtentiis approached the collaboration with empathy and curiosity. She understood that the method would require her to see by way of another person’s sensory world and to let that perspective form her visible selections.

“The first step was simply listening,” she recollects.

Shared Experience

“Matt was very open about what he was going through. His descriptions were so vivid that I could almost picture what he was seeing. That was when I realized the photographs needed to feel tactile and layered. His experience with RP is physical and sensory, and I wanted that same presence in the images,” DeOrtentiis explains.

DeOrtentiis selected a mixed-media strategy, printing images on paper, layering them with thread and translucent supplies, and scanning them again into digital kind. The result’s a sequence of portraits that really feel tangible, as if touched by the very sensations Cetta describes. Shooting in black and white, she used steady lighting quite than strobes in order that he may sense the route and heat of the sunshine on his pores and skin. The method emphasised texture and emotion over precision, turning the portrait classes into collaborative performances constructed on sensitivity and belief.

In one of the vital placing pictures, Cetta stands barely blurred along with his cane, surrounded by mushy, linear distortions that resemble the “light arcs” and “floaters” he experiences.

“We were trying to make visible something impossible to show,” Cetta says. “The constant flickering of my vision. Christina found a way to capture that chaos and make it poetic.”

Finding Meaning in Collaboration

For each artists, the collaboration grew to become a mirrored image on authorship, vulnerability, and inventive respect. It was not nearly documenting Cetta’s expertise however about merging two distinct views into one shared language of expression. Through this course of, they discovered that true collaboration requires give up of ego, management, and even sight itself.

“Too often, photographers use illness as a prop. They turn someone’s condition into an emotional device for clicks or sympathy. Christina did the opposite. She listened with an open mind and an open heart. It was a true partnership, not a spectacle,” Cetta says.

DeOrtentiis echoes that sentiment, reflecting on the fragile stability between interpretation and illustration.

“My role was to translate what he described into something that could be felt by others. I wanted the images to hold both the fragility and the strength of his story. It was important to me that the work be collaborative, not observational. This was never about photographing blindness. It was about photographing Matt,” she says.

Translating the Unseen

The problem of representing one thing as summary as imaginative and prescient loss required creativity and restraint. Both artists needed to navigate the stress between literal storytelling and emotional reality, deciding what to disclose and what to depart ambiguous.

“Honestly, I didn’t set out to depict resilience,” Cetta says. “I set out to show grief, loss, and adaptation. But when I saw the finished portraits, I realized they also reflected resilience. They showed me that I’m still here, still capable, even on days when I struggle.”

DeOrtentiis approached these inside experiences by balancing literal and figurative strategies, permitting emotion to information her craft as a lot as composition.

“I knew I wanted the photos to feel alive,” she explains. “I used charcoal, thread, and translucent overlays to echo the distortions Matt described. I even incorporated warm yellows, because he mentioned that his tinted glasses make edges more defined. Those small choices gave me a way to honor his perspective.”

Both artists agree that the method deepened their understanding of how images can operate past sight, evolving right into a apply rooted in empathy and connection quite than pure remark.

“We often think of photography as something that belongs only to the eyes. But this project reminded me that vision is also emotional and sensory. You can feel an image without fully seeing it,” DeOrtentiis says.

Audience Reactions and Broader Impact

Since releasing the venture on-line, the response has been deeply private. Many viewers had been moved not solely by the pictures but in addition by the dialog they sparked round incapacity, identification, and creativity. The sequence invited audiences to confront their very own assumptions about what it means to see—and to create.

“One of Christina’s friends also has RP and is a photographer,” Cetta says. “That connection meant a lot. What I really hope is that the series reaches other artists with low vision and lets them know they’re not alone.”

DeOrtentiis notes that the venture additionally challenged widespread assumptions about blindness, each inside and out of doors creative communities.

“I learned that blindness exists on a spectrum,” she says. “It’s not a simple on-and-off condition. It can be gradual or partial. Understanding that nuance changed how I think about sight and perception.”

The Evolving Meaning of Light

For Cetta, mild has taken on new significance. It has turn out to be each a supply of frustration and fascination, an emblem of readability and distortion. Every beam, shadow, and glow now carries emotional weight.

“I have a love-hate relationship with light now,” he admits. “I’m extremely sensitive to brightness during the day and need sunglasses even when it’s cloudy. At night, I rely on strong lighting to see. I wear brown lenses because they help accentuate edges and contrast. My world is literally tinted warm. When I edit, I naturally lean toward warmer tones. Sometimes I wonder if I overdo it, but that’s just how I see.”

Despite these adjustments, he stays deeply linked to the craft, discovering new which means within the act of creation itself.

“Composition hasn’t been affected much because my central vision is still intact. But I think more now about how fleeting vision is. Every photograph feels like a record of something I might not see clearly again,” he says.

Resilience and Representation

Cetta hopes the sequence encourages different artists and audiences to assume critically about illustration, to know that incapacity and creativity usually are not opposing forces however intertwined types of notion.

“Blindness isn’t an identity. It’s a condition some of us live with. There are people in this world who are doing amazing things and just happen to be blind. What matters most is how we tell those stories. Christina’s approach was grounded in respect. That’s what makes the work powerful,” he says.

DeOrtentiis agrees, including that the collaboration reaffirmed her personal philosophy about portraiture and empathy.

“My goal as a photographer is to inspire through empathy,” she says.

“Working with Matt taught me how creativity can reveal resilience in ways that words sometimes can’t. The project is about adaptation and trust, but also about the act of seeing in its broadest sense.”

Looking Forward

Both artists plan to proceed constructing on this venture, increasing its attain by way of exhibitions, talks, and future collaborations. For Cetta, the work represents each a private milestone and a message to others going through related challenges.

“I just want it to reach people who might see themselves in it,” he says. “If it helps someone else with RP feel understood, that’s everything.”

DeOrtentiis provides that she would like to {photograph} others who expertise visible impairment or incapacity in their very own methods, broadening the narrative past one story to a shared collective of views.

“There are so many stories to tell,” she says. “Everyone experiences sight differently. That, to me, is what makes photography endlessly relevant.”

A Shared Vision

What started as a private dialogue between two mates has grown right into a profound creative assertion about adaptation, empathy, and the evolving which means of imaginative and prescient. Photogenic Alchemy as soon as explored the transformation of supplies. This new collaboration transforms one thing deeper, the act of notion itself. It challenges the notion that sight defines artistry and as an alternative means that imaginative and prescient, in all its kinds, is one thing we domesticate from inside.

“Photography will always be a part of who I am,” Matt Cetta says. “Even if my vision fades, I’ll still see through memory, through sound, through the feel of light. Losing my sight has taught me that seeing is not limited to the eyes.”

For Christina DeOrtentiis, the venture affirms what she has all the time believed about her craft.

“The camera doesn’t just capture what we see,” she says. “It helps us understand what we feel.”

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Image credit: Matt Cetta, Christina DeOrtentiis