Seeing through Glass

Below is an article I wrote a couple of years ago which was commissioned by The Guardian. The editor, highly enthusiastic about this particular pitch, ending up changing her mind about it after I'd written it, despite apparently loving the article, because she feared that she'd be criticised for endorsing 'radicalism' and 'poor science'. This is itself was something I found both sad and fascinating (and quite annoying, having written the article, though I ended up being paid anyway and had other more successful experiences with that department of the paper).

It's about eyesight, and more broadly about attitudes towards health care and responsibility for individual health. I'm writing this today because I've just got back from a session with Kevin Wooding (an eye expert, as will be revealed) and have fresh vigour for actually trying this method out for myself in the hope that my deteriorating eye sight (I've been myopic (short sighted) since the age of about 7 and require contact lenses to see clearly) might be something I can actually take charge of.

(Image below by Rankin!):

First, though, some background:

I hate wearing glasses - really, I HATE it. I can get quite emotional about it. I don't feel like I'm truly comfortable or happy when I'm wearing them. I grew up a frizzy-haired four-eyes. I was never bullied, thankfully; it was all in my head and I somehow was always accepted by the 'cool' kids at school as one of them (ha!), but I didn’t feel particularly attractive either. Specifically, I didn't feel serene, sleek or delicate, or even very grown up; I had a big, clunky apparatus on my face which announced to the world in bright plastic that I wasn’t a natural visionary. This might sound extreme, but I truly believe it’s not something people understand unless they’ve experienced it; I have one friend who, to this day, regrets wearing her glasses during our travels to South East Asia on our gap years six year ago because she thinks it made her ‘not be herself’ when we met people. She wishes she’d worn her contact lenses for four months straight like me, despite the fact I came back with a serious eye infection from over-wear (I now wear daily disposables; no problemo, infection-wise, but a mad discrepancy between my eyes in terms of prescription, and a rather exotic-sounding couple of scars on the backs of my eyeballs which only opticians with their fancy equipment have the pleasure of viewing).

Hopefully, you get an idea of why visual health is quite interesting to me. Maybe you'll find it interesting too.

Here's that article I wrote. Our bodies are amazing; it makes sense to work with them and understand what's going on with them, rather than just ignore the problem or 'fix' it according to conventional technology.

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Seeing Through Glass

Everyone knows someone who fears that wearing glasses will turn their eyes lazy. We are taught, perhaps by opticians, or perhaps by a glasses-wearer who constitutes one of over two-thirds of the British adult population, that this isn’t the case; ‘Refusing to wear prescribed glasses will only result in headaches, nausea and a nice variety of multicoloured bruises’. Yet there is something in that dissenting voice which tells us the issue is worth investigating.

According to the American Vision Institute, traditional eye care involves a frightening attitude: ‘Patients are not told what is really happening to them, neither are they informed about vision therapy.’ Hopeless, they believe they must ‘resign themselves to a lifetime of helpless dependency on progressively stronger “eyecrutches”, often followed by surgery as their eyes become ruined. In most cases, no attempt is made to prevent the visual problem or even stop it from getting worse.’

What is the alternative? One approach stems from Dr William Bates, a New York ophthalmic surgeon who began to notice in the late 19^th century that that there were fundamental differences between the ways in which people with ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ vision use their eyes. The trick, he said, was for the visually-challenged to re-learn the habits of those with normal sight. They must learn to see without trying.

Most people will not have heard of the Bates Method. This itself is fascinating. The approach thrives in India and Germany, where ophthalmologists (surgical eye specialists) have the option to train in it. Over here, Aldous Huxley claimed to have nursed his eyes back to health from the near-blindness which disqualified him from service in WW1 using the approach, and promptly wrote a book called The Art of Seeing.

The Bates Method is a holistic one. Techniques like ‘palming’ (covering your eyes with your warm palms, gently and without pressure and relaxing into the darkness) and ‘sunning’ (relieving ‘photophobia’ – excessive fear of looking into the sun as manifested by addiction to Ray-Bans - by taking indirect sunshine on the closed lids. This must be done extremely carefully to avoid macular damage) give a whole new context to what rest feels like for the eyes and the mind, says Kevin Wooding, who runs the Bates Method Association’s website at www.Seeing.org.

And then there’s ‘swinging’ (yes, really!) which involves moving the head from left to right while blinking and trying not to focus on any one thing. If that sounds like you’re being asked to pat your head while rubbing your stomach in circles, well, try it anyway, for two minutes every morning. It might be good for you. At the very least it will ‘provide a bridge from full rest into active use of the eyes’.

There are many more visual habits to acquire, all with fantastically comic names. For example, try ‘pumping’ (rhythmically change focus back and forth between a near object 6 inches away and a far object), ‘tromboning’ (exhale as you watch your finger move to arm’s length, inhale as you watch it reach the tip of your nose) and ‘eye rolls’ (pretend to be a teenager – one who attempts no sudden movements and extends their disdain to a full circle). All are to be performed sans glasses and preferably not while driving.

It’s mostly common sense, says Angelika Simpson, another Bates Method Practitioner. If our eyes feel itchy, dry or tired, we should rest them. If we are reading or at a computer, we should be having one-minute breaks every twenty minutes: just enough time to stretch, yawn and gaze into the distance.

In fact, to computer addicts, the favoured analogy of BABO (The British Association of Behavioural Optometry) may appeal: Often, poor eyesight stems from a ‘software’ problem rather than a ‘hardware’ problem. That is, the brain or eye structures will be healthy, but their function and programming is less than ideal. Consider this article a reminder that you may need to upgrade your visual browser.

It might seem incredible that such ‘exercises’ may be able to improve your eyesight. But, apparently, they can, whether the problem is shortsightedness, longsightedness, astigmatism or lazy eye. Perhaps they can reduce prescriptions by one or two dioptres; perhaps more. Children respond relatively quickly in Simpson’s experience.

Really effective eye care might mean spending a few minutes every day exercising your eyes, just like most people spend a few minutes every day cleaning their teeth and brushing their hair. Most people fear blindness more than losing their teeth or hair, yet our eyes aren’t replaceable; they have to last forever.

The main thing is not to force your eyes. That means no squinting, no straining and definitely no

staring. (It’s rude to stare anyway.) There’s a method to this sanity, says Wooding: When the eye muscles are allowed to relax, the eyes can move more freely. The better the eyes can move, the more light they can catch. The more light is caught, the more accurate the information sent to the brain will be.

Short-sightedness, it turns out, is most likely an adaptation to excessive short-distance focus. Our ancestors were hunters who used their vision for survival in the wilderness, looking frequently to the horizon to spot predators and prey. Incidentally, isn’t it interesting that cave men and women tended not to need glasses to compensate for poor eyesight? (How do we know this? Research has been done into aboriginal tribes who have had minimal or no contact with other humans. No glasses found necessary.) Evolutionarily speaking, it may be that we are not ready for the amount of close work required in the modern world.

However, all is not lost. Once there is the idea that heredity may be producing predispositions (quirky ways of seeing) rather than absolute inevitability, there is always an incentive to act. ‘Certainly we see enough vision flexibility within the method that heredity – a term that implies fixed inevitability – becomes a minor concern,’ says Wooding. ‘In most cases where myopia (short-sightedness) runs in families, everyone in the family does a lot of reading or close work. This may be the common factor causing the myopia, not necessarily genetics.’

So why hasn’t the Bates Method caught on? In some ways, the idea of ‘practising’ healthy visual habits is unattractive – it takes time, thought and effort and doesn’t claim to be a quick fix. ‘Culturally,’ says Wooding, ‘it challenges some very basic assumptions that many people have about goals and how to achieve them.’

Nor has the Bates Method been scientifically proven. There still needs to be a large, well-designed, controlled study into its effectiveness.

From a logical standpoint, though, the approach makes sense. Wooding: ‘Of all the species of animal in the world, humans are the only ones who have devised complex technologies, one of which is the ability to create glass, grind it into curves and bend light. It may be ingenious, but it’s a very odd thing to do.’

For more information:

Books:
Better Eyesight Without Glasses by William H Bates –an abridged version of Bates’ original book.

The Cure of Imperfect Sight by Treatment without Glasses by William H Bates – the original version can still be obtained as a free download – see www.seeing.org below.

The Art of Seeing by Aldous Huxley – Huxley received lessons from one of Bates’ students, Margaret Corbett. Huxley had been facing the prospect of blindness prior to his introduction to the method. (Perhaps one of the most accessible of books on the subject.)

Modern books:
The Bates Method by Peter Mansfield
Relearning to See by Thomas Quackenbush

Improving Your Vision Without Glasses or Contact Lenses The American Vision Institute

It is also possible to obtain the complete collection of magazines that Bates published between 1919 and 1931. These contain his ongoing experiences and research into his new method with case histories, discussions of eye problems and their solutions. It can be ordered as a PDF download from the Visions of Joy website below.

Websites:
www.seeing.org – The Bates Association for Vision Education – also contains more in depth descriptions of various techniques used in the method.
www.visionsofjoy.org
www.centralfixation.com
www.iblindness.org
www.visioneducators.com

www.babo.co.uk

The Bates Association in the UK has an advice line and can help interested people to find a teacher – there is also an international teachers list on www.seeing.org.

      The Secretary
      The Bates Association for Vision Education
      95 Brodrick Rd
      Eastbourne
      BN22 9NY

      Tel: +44 (0)800 055 6130
      Fax: +44 (0)845 225 5098
      guardian@seeing.org

The shed with a cave inside...

I worked recently with Rayment Kirby at his home/shed in East Sussex (before the Ophelia shoot detailed below). I think Ray is absolutely brilliant - so refreshingly ingenious with his make-shiftery. He creates backdrops, lighting and even camera equipment himself, making the most of what he has to hand. He has such a creative approach to 'things' and this makes the results even more special, I think. The photographs below are intended to go towards a book he's working on at the moment, and you can read more about his fascinating methods on his blog.

Here are some of the shots from the session. Some of them were taken against a blue screen, with the idea that they would then be re-worked digitally into different backgrounds, but they work well in themselves I think.

The first shot is proabably my favourite. In front of the blue screen was hung some plastic sheeting, draped to create interesting plays with the light.

Through the window...

 And some composites already:

You can read about the methods involved in the last shot here - 'Caving for Beginners'!

Thanks Ray and I look forward to the next one!

Ophelia...

...was the theme of my fourth shoot with Jeremy Howitt. I seem to have produced some of my favourite images with him and, in general, seem to love any opportunity to agree to throw myself into water and pretend to be a mermaid and/or nymph. These were taken during a leisurely two-hour early-evening shoot in East Sussex last weekend. People say it's 'brave' to get in water for shoots like this, but I think if the worst thing that happens to you in a day's work is that you get wet/dirty/cold while floating around pretending to be part of a mythical story, and you get beautiful images to show for it, you don't have much to complain about. Jeremy wanted to aim for something reminiscent of Waterhouse and Millais, an admirable aim in my book. The reflections in the water worked so well for a dreamy, painterly feel. For the first few, I have to admit I was imagining myself as a princess searching for a little frog to turn into a prince. When in doubt, my mind reverts to whimsy.

Thanks Jeremy - looking forward to the next one! :-)

Water, gloves, life guards and silver coins

More from John Evans and Gregory Brown...

Water (B&Ws by Greg; colour by John):

Villa walls, doorways and arches (first four by Greg; rest by John):

Lifeguard look-out (first by John, then by Greg. Other model is Hannah Ashlea):

By Greg:

 (or in colour?)