Ted Tahquechi

Blind Photographer/Tactile Artist/Accessible Art Advocate

Artist Statement

I make photographs for more than one way of experiencing the world.

My practice began in traditional photography, drawn to texture, atmosphere, and the quiet emotional weight of a place or moment. Over time, vision loss changed how I engage with images and, more importantly, how I think about who photography is for. Rather than stepping away from the medium, I expanded how I work within it.

Today, my practice includes both traditional photographic prints and tactile artworks that translate photographic information into physical form. Texture, depth, and material are not secondary considerations, they are integral to how the work is conceived and experienced. I am interested in what happens when an image can be touched, traced, and understood through the body as well as the eyes.

Accessibility in my work is not an accommodation added after the fact. It is part of the creative process itself. By designing photographs that invite multiple modes of engagement, I challenge the assumption that visual art must be exclusively visual to be meaningful. The tactile pieces are not replicas of photographs, they are parallel works that offer a different, equally valid way of knowing the image.

At its core, my work explores perception, memory, and presence. It asks how art can meet people where they are, and how expanding access can expand the language of photography itself. I am interested in creating work that holds space for curiosity, slows down looking, and reminds us that seeing is only one way of understanding.

Tactile Photography

Tactile photography is an extension of my photographic practice, not a departure from it.

The process begins with a traditional photograph. From there, visual information is translated into physical form using layered textures, depth mapping, and material choices that allow an image to be experienced through touch. Lines become contours, tonal shifts become surface variation, and spatial relationships are reinterpreted as physical structure. The goal is not to reproduce a photograph exactly, but to create a parallel work that carries the same intent and emotional weight through a different sensory language.

Each tactile piece is designed to be explored slowly. Hands replace eyes, movement replaces glances, and understanding unfolds over time. For blind and low vision audiences, these works offer direct access to photographic content. For sighted audiences, they introduce a different way of engaging with images, one that disrupts the assumption that photography is purely visual and passive.

My advocacy for accessibility in the arts is rooted in practice rather than theory. Accessibility is not something I add to finished work, it is embedded from the beginning. I work with artists, educators, and institutions to encourage approaches to art-making that consider multiple modes of access as creative opportunities rather than constraints. When access is treated as part of the artistic process, the work becomes richer, more inclusive, and more expansive for everyone.

Tactile photography exists at the intersection of art, technology, and lived experience. It asks how photographs can be shared more fully, how audiences can be invited in rather than filtered out, and how expanding access can expand what photography itself is allowed to be.

Gallery