I’m not a conventional photographer.
My picture is captured
for love, for the photographer’s spirit
and sensitivity.
My photograph is blind.
I was born in the backlands of Piauí,
in the city of Bom Jesus.
And there by the 14 years of age,
attending a technical course in agriculture,
a zootech teacher woke me up for the picture.
At age 21,
I came to São Paulo.
Close to where I worked,
there was an institution for the blind.
And I helped young people, ladies and
to get to the institution.
In 2004, at age 28,
due to bilateral uveitis,
I begin to lose sight.
And, after a year of struggle,
I was deficient.
I am low vision, or low vision.
And what to do?
Am I going to stay home depressed?
I’m gonna cry?
I discovered that the best way to stand,
to fight for life,
It’s when we meet other people.
who have had or have the same disability as ours.
And in this process of rehabilitation, I met people who told me:
“We are disabled,
but we have to work,
we have to have leisure
we have to live, we have to date,
we have to have a normal life. “
And then you ask me: “And the photograph?”
I did not think I could take more pictures because of my visual impairment.
Suddenly, I know a colleague who is taking a photography course
in an institution in São Paulo.
And this course is specific for people with visual impairments.
Suddenly, the glitter in my eyes and joy come again.
I say, “I’ll be able to photograph again!”
Beginning in sport
and start photography.
How do I photograph, ladies and gentlemen?
I photograph with my sensitivity.
My photograph is blind, because,
as much as there is all technology today,
in photographic equipment there is no accessibility,
such as cell phones, where there are screen readers;
already in the cameras no.
That’s why I say my photograph is blind.
Because I use the senses to capture.
When I do the portrait of a person, or when I photograph an athlete,
somehow, I feel.
First, I need to mentalise that image.
As an athlete, I have the base to photograph the sport.
And here comes the second opportunity:
Ricardo Rojas invites me to be part of this team of photographers
that go to the Paralympic Games Rio 2016.
It was me, [handicapped] visual, in this team of six photographers, and a wheelchair,
And there, my life changes in a way that you have no notion. Because?
I was the first visual deficient
to cover the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
My story is being told in more than 30 countries,
in more than 4,5 thousand vehicles.
While I was there photographing, I could not even work right,
because people wanted interviews.
(Laughs)
And photos.
People would stop me in the arenas.
And one of the strongest emotions I had was with a Japanese translator.
He came to me and said:
“John, I saw you on TV, in the news.
Your story touched me a lot.
Give me a hug”.
I hugged him and stood still.
In this current madness of a world of selfies,
the person just asked me a hug.
And that’s what I want to leave it to you.
Prejudice, against any deficiency,
it only exists when there is a lack of knowledge.
When people are unaware about [certain] disability.
I think, when I go to some talk,
we have the obligation, as a person with a disability,
to teach people how to treat someone with disabilities.
I’ll cite one thing that happens a lot with us:
I’m at a bus stop and I’m going to ask for help to stop the bus.
I say, “Can you help me …?”
She says, “No, my son, I have no money, I only have $ 2.”
(Laughs)
I say, “I do not want money. I just want you to stop the bus.”
There is this cultural issue in Brazil,
that it is necessary to give alms to people with disabilities.
Do not give alms to a handicapped person.
Give work, dignity.
We want to be a consumer.
We want to go to the theater, we want …
(Applause)
have leisure, culture.
We’re all the same.
(Applause)
We just want it: to be the same.
The heart beats the same way,
The blood that pulses in my veins also pulsates in yours.
We do not want to be different.
All have their limitation.
Mine is visual.
But I’ve always been passionate about photography,
and disability did not stop me from being a good photographer.
So, do not stop believing in dreams.
My dream now is Tokyo, Japan 2020.
(Applause)
Thank you!
”
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