Unseen: Listening to visually impaired South Africans
After experiencing sight loss, artist Joanne Bloch explores the complex realities of visual impairment in South Africa through her own story and those of twenty others. Unseen reveals both daily challenges and remarkable resilience, offering intimate portraits of individuals who navigate a sighted world with courage, humor, and unwavering determination.
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Unseen: Listening to visually impaired South Africans
After artist Joanne Bloch experienced serious sight loss, she felt called to explore what it means to be visually impaired in our society. Unseen gives both her own reflections and those of 20 other South Africans, each told in the unique voice of its contributor. The conversations and stories in Unseen reveal many hidden complexities. They describe sensory and bodily adaptations, as well as the systemic barriers to basic rights that are built into our society. They show the constant need to counter ignorance and hostility and describe the social discomfort and isolation that often come with visual impairment. Yet these are not narratives of passive victims. Instead, they are idiosyncratic, compelling expressions of courage, humour, solidarity and resilience. Most of all, they reflect a determination to live a rich and fulfilling life despite every difficulty.
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In Unseen, Joanne Bloch offers a deeply personal and illuminating exploration of visual impairment in South Africa. Drawing from her own experience of sight loss and conversations with twenty other visually impaired individuals, Bloch weaves together a tapestry of diverse voices and experiences. This groundbreaking work challenges common misconceptions about blindness and partial sight, revealing the complex realities faced by those living with visual impairments. From navigating daily life and relationships to confronting societal barriers and discrimination, Bloch’s narrative brings attention to an often-overlooked community.
Unseen is not just about loss and struggle; it’s a testament to resilience, adaptation, and the human spirit. Through intimate portraits and thoughtful analysis, Bloch invites readers to reconsider their understanding of sight, disability, and what it means to truly perceive one another in a world that often disregards the visually impaired. This book is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the diverse experiences of disability and the power of human connection.
For most of her adult life, Joanne was an exhibiting visual artist. Her work was shown in both solo and group exhibitions, including the 2013 Venice Biennale. In parallel with her art practice, Joanne worked as a freelance writer, specialising in human rights-related and educational materials. In 2011, six months into her PhD in Fine Art, Joanne was faced with irreversible sight loss. After she completed her PhD, her deteriorating vision forced her to abandon art-making and concentrate entirely on writing. Joanne has always been especially interested in life writing and worked as an interviewer, photographer and writer on several interview-based books for young adults and children. Her new book Unseen emerged as a response to her own experience of visual impairment, a growing awareness of the ignorance, stigma and discrimination confronting visually impaired South Africans and a strong desire for marginalized voices to be more widely heard.
She lives in Cape Town.
