Welcome
Welcome and thank you for visiting my website. Please keep coming back as it is regularly updated with more of my work.
I hope that browsing through my Galleries you will find something you like. I also hope that they will inspire you to look more closely at the world around you rather than just giving it a passing glance, taking it for granted that it will always be there.
Although I have been taking photographs for well over 40 years, the ones that appear here were all taken after a major event in my life - that being that for two-and-a-half years I was so blind that I couldn't even see my own hand in front of my face and had to use a white stick to get around.
The problem was merely cataracts but red tape and bureaucracy meant I could not register with a GP to get the referral for surgery and meanwhile my cataracts were getting very dense very quickly.
The first thing I lost was details, then distance - I lost the sky, my world became smaller and smaller. Colours became muted. I could no longer see people's facial expressions, then I could no longer see people. I walked looking down at my feet because that was as far as I could see. Then I lost the ground too. I found myself in a lonely, flat world devoid of all beauty.
I could navigate my way around because I could recall buildings, I could recognize people I knew by their voices. But what I could not conjure up was a different sunset every night, a different sunrise every morning, ripples and reflections in water, the changing view every moment as the light changed.
Although my loss of sight was fairly rapid, it was gradual, so I was able to learn to adapt. When I eventually got my first surgery the result was instant the moment the bandage came off the next day. This was not like putting on a pair of glasses, this was an explosion in the brain, the sudden insertion of an extra sense. It felt like what it was - a true miracle.
After that, eyesight can never be taken for granted again, it is something to be treasured. I can now spend hours just sitting watching the changing patterns of light as clouds pass in front of the sun, seeing different parts of the landscape become highlighted then receding (though this may in part be due to middle-age!) and when I am photographing a spectacular sunset or sunlight on water I am overcome by a kind of frenzy taking shot after shot after shot - I am looking at something so beautiful that I want to capture it and keep it forever.
My heart goes out to all the blind and visually-impaired who can never have their sight restored. Which is why I am so perplexed at the growing number of people who actually elect to be blind, walking around totally fixated on a device in their hand, completely oblivious to everything going on around them, who never even experience the simple joy of a smile from a stranger.
I urge you all to stop looking at your phone and look around you. Look down, look up, look sideways. The world is a beautiful place. If you look closely enough at anything, you can find beauty in it.
However, if you are unable to tear yourselves away from your screens then perhaps you could take a look at my YouTube channel (just click on the 'button' below). I hope you will find some pleasure in looking at the world through my eyes for a while.
Deborah Francis
Acknowledgements: my thanks to Gill Croft whose friendship helped me though my cloudiest (literally in my case) days; to
Irma Kurtz and Lindsey Hilsum whose encouragement keeps me striving to progress; and to Keith Brown whose stimulating conversations have taught me to really think about my work.
My special thanks to Mr Brian Little at the Moorfields Eye Hospital: you may think that 'all' you did for me was prevent me getting run over by a bus or falling down a flight of stairs - I hope my images can express to you what my words cannot.
I hope that browsing through my Galleries you will find something you like. I also hope that they will inspire you to look more closely at the world around you rather than just giving it a passing glance, taking it for granted that it will always be there.
Although I have been taking photographs for well over 40 years, the ones that appear here were all taken after a major event in my life - that being that for two-and-a-half years I was so blind that I couldn't even see my own hand in front of my face and had to use a white stick to get around.
The problem was merely cataracts but red tape and bureaucracy meant I could not register with a GP to get the referral for surgery and meanwhile my cataracts were getting very dense very quickly.
The first thing I lost was details, then distance - I lost the sky, my world became smaller and smaller. Colours became muted. I could no longer see people's facial expressions, then I could no longer see people. I walked looking down at my feet because that was as far as I could see. Then I lost the ground too. I found myself in a lonely, flat world devoid of all beauty.
I could navigate my way around because I could recall buildings, I could recognize people I knew by their voices. But what I could not conjure up was a different sunset every night, a different sunrise every morning, ripples and reflections in water, the changing view every moment as the light changed.
Although my loss of sight was fairly rapid, it was gradual, so I was able to learn to adapt. When I eventually got my first surgery the result was instant the moment the bandage came off the next day. This was not like putting on a pair of glasses, this was an explosion in the brain, the sudden insertion of an extra sense. It felt like what it was - a true miracle.
After that, eyesight can never be taken for granted again, it is something to be treasured. I can now spend hours just sitting watching the changing patterns of light as clouds pass in front of the sun, seeing different parts of the landscape become highlighted then receding (though this may in part be due to middle-age!) and when I am photographing a spectacular sunset or sunlight on water I am overcome by a kind of frenzy taking shot after shot after shot - I am looking at something so beautiful that I want to capture it and keep it forever.
My heart goes out to all the blind and visually-impaired who can never have their sight restored. Which is why I am so perplexed at the growing number of people who actually elect to be blind, walking around totally fixated on a device in their hand, completely oblivious to everything going on around them, who never even experience the simple joy of a smile from a stranger.
I urge you all to stop looking at your phone and look around you. Look down, look up, look sideways. The world is a beautiful place. If you look closely enough at anything, you can find beauty in it.
However, if you are unable to tear yourselves away from your screens then perhaps you could take a look at my YouTube channel (just click on the 'button' below). I hope you will find some pleasure in looking at the world through my eyes for a while.
Deborah Francis
Acknowledgements: my thanks to Gill Croft whose friendship helped me though my cloudiest (literally in my case) days; to
Irma Kurtz and Lindsey Hilsum whose encouragement keeps me striving to progress; and to Keith Brown whose stimulating conversations have taught me to really think about my work.
My special thanks to Mr Brian Little at the Moorfields Eye Hospital: you may think that 'all' you did for me was prevent me getting run over by a bus or falling down a flight of stairs - I hope my images can express to you what my words cannot.