© Pete Eckert

This was done on a parking deck in Hamburg, Germany. I worked with the Volkswagen crew responsible for a lot of car advertisements in Hamburg, and I asked them to find three or four good places to shoot. I didn’t give them any limitations. I just gave them an open ticket to find any place they thought was appropriate when I showed up. I photographed three or four places and took some notes to do a double exposure to drop the Volkswagen Arteon into the shot. First, I shot the parking deck and then the car in the studio, and double-exposed it into the picture. I do this usually by memory, but this shoot was so important I took notes.

I am a totally blind person. But by memorizing the event of taking photos using sound and touch I have a clear mind’s eye of my work. I could do conceptual art by showing the contact sheets and a write-up about the event of shooting the photos. This would eliminate sighted people from my process. I don’t. I want to interact with sighted people. I am trying to cut a patch as a blind artist. By interacting with sighted people, I am building bridges. My work makes people question their assumptions. By sharpening my other senses and translating what I hear helps my skills. I can see again. I am not trying to depict the sighted world. I am trying to show the world I now see using my other senses. My memories, emotions, as well as sound and touch play a part. I am a visual person, I just can’t see.

Amy Eckert helped in editing the text and audio recordings are by Douglas McCulloh.

I chose these three photographs from a 2017 car advertisement I did as it was a professionally paid commission, which is highly significant for blind people who are vastly undervalued. The minimum wage for a blind person is as much as a McDonald’s milkshake. I believe we stand on our work, not on our inability to see. In preparation for the commission, I requested detailed information on the special features and characteristics of Volkswagen’s new car, the Arteon and tested what I had in mind using my wife, Amy and my pickup truck. On the set, I gained sensory impressions of the car by feeling and tapping to develop a precise image of its form and the sleekness of bodywork. Through long and double exposures, I built my impression of the car in darkness. The result shows the Arteon as an immortal bird emerging from the flames, and with its beauty is the amazement that a totally blind guy made this and so what can other blind people do? – Pete Eckert

© Pete Eckert

This is a studio shot. The best feature of the Volkswagen Arteon was the back end of it, and I wanted to shoot that. I had asked Volkswagen for a cherry picker to lift me up higher. But when I got in the cherry picker it would vibrate a little and I knew it wouldn’t be good to take photos from. I asked for scaffolding, and they said that would take several days. “Well, do you have a tripod that can go up high?” I asked. They did have one that could go up to 9 feet. So that was as high as I could go, and all my shots were from 9 feet or lower. I built a kind of wall of fire with reflected light for the Volkswagen Arteon to drive into and then shot the car from behind. You might notice, there is sparkle on the car from the chrome. I did that by shooting more directly at the car – something most photographers want to avoid. Sparkles of light are considered aberrations. But I went in the other direction and tried to capitalize on some of the sparkle. It gives a kind of bling type of look. The overall effect is of the car driving through a river of fire.

© Pete Eckert

I walked around the car searching for details and settled on the car wheel itself. The wheel looks almost like a turbine from a jet engine. And that really intrigued me. So, I shot the car wheel and some of the fender around it, as if it was a gold sculpture. I added red light to this detail to give some excitement. There is a little wisp of smoke, white smoke on the bottom. I put that in because I had a hot rod when I was a kid and liked to spin the tires.