Blind photographer Mohammed Saad lectures at Eastman Museum

Mohammed Saad may have learned
English from watching “Titanic,” but he couldn’t tell you whether there was
enough room for both Jack and Rose on the raft. Saad,
a disability advocate, app developer, and photographer, is blind.

Just shy of George Eastman’s 153rd birthday, Saad lectured at the Eastman Museum on Tuesday, June 11,
the final stop on his American tour, “Seeing Clearly Now: Creative Technology
for the Blind in Saudi Arabia.” The lecture was sponsored by the Middle East
Institute and hosted by Rochester Global Connections.

In an interview with CITY before his talk, Saad said he was proud to be in the George Eastman Museum
because he likes photographers, especially George Eastman who had a long
history with cameras and film. A Q&A session, moderated by disability
advocate Luticha Doucette, followed the lecture.

Saad is from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
where he studies in the College of Languages and Translation at Imam Muhammad
ibn Saud Islamic University. In his CITY interview, Saad
explained that he loves English. He also loves cameras and taking pictures,
which might seem strange to those of us who do have our sight. Saad’s mission is to clear up common misconceptions about
blindness.

He said that a few years ago, an interviewer asked him, “Why
are you posting pictures on Instagram? Why do you have an Instagram account or
a Snapchat if you can’t see anything?”

Saad replied: “Let me answer your
question with another question. Why do you have an Instagram account?” The
interviewer responded that she liked to share pictures with others. “I said,
‘Okay, and I have the same reason, too,'” he said.

Saad has been interested in
photography since he was 6 or 7 years old, but his parents wouldn’t purchase a
camera for him. He begged for one — a Kodak, specifically — but they didn’t
understand why a blind child would want to use a camera. They brought him toy
cameras made for children, but Saad would protest,
insisting that he wanted to be able to hear the sound the flash makes.

Saad relies heavily on sound. The
method Saad uses when he takes portraits of people is
fairly simple: he asks the subject to make a sound — maybe, say a sentence or
two — and then adjusts his positioning and distance relative to the person’s
location. During the lecture, Saad asked for an
audience volunteer to come up to the stage to demonstrate this technique. Saad snapped a picture and posted
it to his Twitter page, which was displayed on a large screen behind him. After
several page refreshes, the portrait of the volunteer popped up on the screen,
met with applause.

Saad does not consider himself a
“professional” photographer by any means. “It’s not important to be a professional
photographer,” he said. “I’m not professional. But the most important thing is
that you can play with things related to sight.”

His activism as a disability advocate in Saudi Arabia began
with a campaign to get Saudi restaurants to provide braille copies of their
menus — motivated by an ardent love of food. From that point forward, activism
has played a large role in his life.

Phelan pic.twitter.com/ydV85KiS5C

— محمد سعد (@magic_ksa) July 11, 2017

Saad is the owner and creator of an
Arabic-language app, MANHAL. He records his voice and teaches blind users
different skills, such as how to navigate through daily tasks, how to use the
latest technology, and even how to cook. At the presentation, he told the
audience that his long-term goal is to create more accessible buildings in
Saudi Arabia.

When asked what he thinks people should know about blindness,
Saad was straightforward. “We are normal,” he stated
plainly. “We can use a lot of technology to improve our lives.” Speaking
specifically to families, he said, “Help your children from the beginning;
help them to improve their skills and to do everything independently, because
you won’t be there forever with them.”

Saad is on Snapchat under the
username @magicksa and on Twitter as @magic_ksa. For more information on Rochester Global
Connections, head to rochesterglobalconnections.org.

This article appears in Jul 12-18, 2017.