Natalia Szemis

“My nose is a bit strange, as well as my mouth and eyes. My hair looks messy and gray in the picture. How should I draw a neck?
I mean how to draw a good-looking neck?
Below I will draw strange hands and strange legs, just one leg, or maybe two?
Yes, two legs crossing and I think it’s done.
Yes it’s done but let me check: eyes, nose, lips, body, neck, hands, legs, this is me, but you know what? This is a very ugly drawing.”

Bartek - age 11, partly blind, explaining how he sees himself while drawing a self-portrait

“Imaginarium” is a story about the inner world of blind and sight-impaired children. I asked a group of kids the same question: How do you imagine yourself ?
In response, I received remarkable self-portraits. Drawings based on things, they are not able to see. This project of unlimited imagination raises the question: what does it mean to be blind? Maybe the only way to find the limit of the visible is to go beyond – into the invisible.

“My self-portrait? Do I have to? Well okay... I’ll draw some sort of stupid head. My head is not round. I don’t know what should I draw next?
Maybe some hair? I think I’ve got a lot of strange hair on my head.
The person from the picture does not look like me....neck…eyes…. Do you think that the person from the drawing has eyes? I can’t draw eyes…. I think my face looks strange…let’s add some clothes, and legs and hands. This person from the drawing doesn’t really look like me...it’s not me… it doesn’t look like a human being.”

Patrycja - age 12 blind, explaining how she sees herself while drawing a self-portrait