Inner Light

Sierra Leone’s 2004 civil war left many with serious medical conditions, including blindness. People had their eyes cut out by fighters, others lost their sight to shrapnel or combat.

Photographer Tim Hetherington was a champion of the Milton Margai School for the Blind in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he shot these portraits. He wrote:

While exploring for myself the shades, textures, and shapes that exist in the lives of the children… I have found that… they learn to live with blindness and to survive in their respective environment while seeking an education and guidance that will help them throughout their lives…. Many of them have an intense desire to communicate their experience and connect with people outside their day-to-day lives.

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“Inner Light: Portraits of the Blind, Sierra Leone 1999–2003” will be on view at Yossi Milo Gallery New York beginning April 11, 2013, through May 18. All images used with permission, © Tim Hetherington, Courtesy Yossi Milo Gallery, New York.