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A blind artist creates a series of hypnotizing GIFs
George Redhawk began to lose his vision while teaching medicine. Eventually, after 4 years, he was forced to give up his trade. After becoming legally blind, he began to explore the realm of photo manipulation. George, who suffers from visual distortions created by his mind trying to fill the gaps in his vision, aspired to show the world as he sees it from his damaged sight.
“There is a process my mind goes through as I try to discern what I am looking at, a type of morphing and transitioning in my vision as my brain tries to make decisions based upon faulty data being sent by my eyes. It is this process that I try to express with my motion effects. It is designed to challenge, confuse, and in some cases, disturb your visual sense of ‘order.’”
As a result, this legally blind artist has raised the bar in the art of animated images with his ongoing series, The World Through My Eyes. And with the help of computer software, he creates captivating GIFs that feature a wide range of themes and aesthetics. While most of us use GIFs to add a dash of humour to emails, he’s transformed photographs and paintings into eerily hypnotizing artworks.
Working from still photos that struck his fancy, George took elements that looked weird to him and started to move everything that typically wouldn’t be moving.
“I’d move features of the face everywhere,” Redhawk says. “In some photographs, particularly with Antonio Mora because I love his work and what he does with blending faces with landscapes, I will make buildings move and give it a really surreal effect.”
George’s style of animation is catching on in the art world, it’s now being referred to as the Redhawk Effect. Unfortunately, since the vision loss is progressive, one day he will be completely blind. In the meantime, however, he’s making some lasting GIFs and being an inspiring visual artist. Check out more work from the collection of this legally blind artist and follow his updates here.