人生不设限·近乎全盲的摄影师

失去挚爱、关系破裂、财务有困难或生病可能会毁了你——如果你任由悲伤和绝望将你淹没。有个方法可以在这些挑战中杀出一条路：即使生命似乎要把你击倒，也要仔细注意有什么浮现出来。

A lost loved one, a broken relationship, a financial setback, or an illness can break you if you let grief and despair overtake you. One way to fight through those challenges is to stay alert for what rises up even when life seems to be taking you down.

我在《蝴蝶马戏团》的拍摄场地遇见了摄影师葛蕾妮丝·史维逊。她虽然住在奥兰多，但在本片导演，也是她的朋友维格夫妇的邀请下，来到加州担任这部片子的侧拍摄影师。葛蕾妮丝得过奖，常常接受杂志社、企业、报社和网站的委托，担任摄影工作。她同时也从事人像和自然摄影。她很爱摄影，这是她的热情所在。

I met the photographer Glennis Siverson on the set of The Butterfly Circus. Though she lives in Orlando, Glennis had come to California to serve as the set photographer at the invitation of the directors and her friends the Weigels. Glennis is an award-winning photographer whose work is commissioned by magazines, corporations, newspapers, and Web sites. She also does portrait and nature photography. She loves photography. It is her passion.

葛蕾妮丝曾在大企业的人力资源部门工作了二十多年，却在经济衰退中失去了“安全又有保障”的工作。但葛蕾妮丝接受了这个挫折，并利用前进的动能去追求自己热爱的事，于是成了一位全职摄影师。

But for more than twenty years, Glennis worked in the human resources field for big companies. She lost her "safe and secure" job in the recession. Glennis took that kick in the pants and used the forward momentum to pursue her passion. She became a full-time photographer.

“我想，现在不做，就永远没机会了。”她说道。

"I decided it was now or never!" she said.

很棒的故事吧?葛蕾妮丝真是好样儿的，她把可能带来负面结果的事情，变成创造更美好人生的机会。

Great story, right? Glennis is a real-life example of someone who took a potentially negative event and used it as an opportunity to create an even better life.

真了不起!

Terrifi c! Wonderful!

还不止这样呢!你知道吗?葛蕾妮丝这位得奖摄影师近乎全盲。

But there's more. You see, Glennis, the award-winning photographer, can hardly see. She is legally blind.

“小时候我的视力就很弱。”她说，“5岁就戴上眼镜，不过视力还是愈来愈差。大概在1995年，我被诊断出眼角膜病变，角膜变形且退化，甚至到了左眼看不见的地步。因为我的近视非常严重，所以没办法做激光手术，唯一的选择是角膜移植。”

"Ever since I was a child I have had poor eyesight," she said. "I got glasses at age five and my vision kept getting worse. Then around 1995 I was diagnosed with corneal disease. The cornea is misshapen and degenerates. It got to the point that I couldn't see out of my left eye. Since I had extremely severe nearsightedness, it was past the threshold to get Lasik surgery. My only option was a cornea transplant."

2004年，葛蕾妮丝接受了这项手术。医生告诉她，手术后，她左眼的视力在不戴眼镜，也不戴隐形眼镜的情况下，可以矫正到0.5。“但所有可以出错的地方都出了错，只差没废了我这只眼睛。”她说，“手术让我的视力变得更差，还出现青光眼。我的左眼视力变差，接着是右眼视网膜出血(和手术无关)，所以现在上面有个盲点。”

In 2004 Glennis underwent that surgery. Her doctor had told her that it would correct the vision in her left eye to 20/40 without glasses or contacts. "But everything that could go wrong pretty much did—short of losing my eye," she said. "The operation made my vision worse. I also got glaucoma as a result. My vision worsened in my left eye, and then, unrelated to the operation, I had a hemorrhage on the retina of my right eye. So I have a blind spot on it."

从工作了二十多年的地方被解雇，然后经历一场差点把她弄瞎的失败手术和视网膜出血，葛蕾妮丝如果绝望、放弃，大概没人会怪她，说不定大家还觉得她应该更痛苦、更愤怒一些才对。

Laid off from her job of twenty years, and all but blinded by failed surgery and a hemorrhaged retina, Glennis could not be blamed for despairing and giving up. You might expect her to grow bitter and angry.

但情况正好相反。因为心怀感激，葛蕾妮丝的生命得以飞得更高、更远。

Instead, she was grateful to soar higher and farther.

“我不认为自己‘残障’或‘失能’，反而觉得自己更有能力了，因为近乎全盲让我成为一个更好的摄影师。”她说。

"I don't think of myself as disabled. I think of myself as enabled, because being nearly blind has made me a better photographer," she said.

葛蕾妮丝已经看不见细微处，但她不觉得自己被剥夺了什么，反而因为不必再执著于一些小地方、小事情，所以心怀感激。

She can no longer see fine details, but instead of feeling deprived, she is grateful that she is free not to obsess about the little things anymore.

“在失去大部分的视力之前，如果是人像摄影，我甚至会注意每根头发，以及这个人身体的每个角度。因为太注意局部，所以我的作品看起来很僵硬、不自然。但现在我的拍照方式比较像是直觉反应——我感觉，我看，我拍!现在我的作品比较出于直觉，跟周遭的人和环境也有了更多互动。”

"Prior to losing most of my eyesight, if I was doing portrait photography, I was focused on every strand of hair and every angle of the person's body. My work looked stiff because I was so focused on composition. But now my approach is pretty much a gut reaction. I feel it. I see it, and I shoot it. My work is more instinctual, and I interact with people and surroundings much more.

葛蕾妮丝说，她现在拍出来的照片会有瑕疵，但是更具艺术性、更动人了。“有个小姐看到我为她拍的照片后哭了出来，因为她觉得我真的抓住了她的神韵。”她说，“过去我的作品从来没有感动过任何人。”

Glennis said her photographs now are flawed but are more artful, more compelling. "One gal actually cried when she saw my images of her because she felt I'd captured her so well," she said. "I had never moved anyone emotionally before."

自从失去大部分的视力之后，葛蕾妮丝的人像和景观摄影作品已经得到十个国际奖项，她所拍的一幅照片还从16 000件参赛作品中被选出来参展，入选的作品只有111件。

Since she lost much of her eyesight, Glennis has won ten international awards for her portrait and landscape photography.

眼盲让葛蕾妮丝无法继续原来的人资工作，然而许多伟大的艺术家，例如莫奈和贝多芬，却不受身体的障碍所限，在艺术领域卓然有成，因为他们把障碍当作机会，为自己艺术表现开发了全新的方式。

One of her photos was selected from sixteen thousand entries for an exhibition of just 111 works. She's had photos selected for four exhibitions at the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado.

葛蕾妮丝充满感激地告诉我，她最爱的一节《圣经》经文是：“因我们行事为人是凭着信心，不是凭着眼见。”[27]

Her blindness would never have allowed Glennis to continue her job in human resources, but many great artists such as Monet and Beethoven thrived despite disabilities because they used them as opportunities to explore their art in new and fresh ways. Grateful, Glennis told me that her favorite Bible verse is now "We live by faith, not by sight."

“事实上，这说的就是我现在的人生， 不过让我做一点补充。我当然会担心全盲，那真的非常非常非常可怕，毕竟这种事也没有使用手册可以参考啊。”她说道。

"That literally is my life now. I've had to make adjustments, sure. I worry about being totally blind. It's been very, very scary. There is no manual for this."

葛蕾妮丝走在一条全新的路上，她将此视为礼物，而非生命的瓦解。“我以前是个控制狂，但现在我试着一天一天地过，享受每个当下。”她说，“另外，我为了自己还活着、为了有栖身之所、为了太阳依然照耀而感恩。我不担心明天，因为我们永远不知道明天会如何。”

She is on a new path, but instead of seeing it as a disruption in her life, she views it as a gift. "I'd been very controlling before. Now I try to live day to day and enjoy each moment," she said. "I also try to be grateful that I have a roof over my head and I'm alive and the sun is shining and I don't worry about tomorrow because we never know what tomorrow will bring."

葛蕾妮丝真的很棒，是个拥抱机会的人，对吧?她鼓舞了我，而我希望她也激励了你去寻找并明智地选择向梦想前进的方法，然后当你的心说“去吧”的时候，请采取行动。

Glennis is a great lady, who embraces opportunity, don't you agree? She inspires me, and I hope she inspires you to look for ways to advance your dreams, choose them wisely, and then act upon them when your heart says "go."