INTERNATIONAL FEATURE BLIND PHOTOGRAPHER ALESSANDRO BERSANI ON CAPTURING THE INVISIBLE STORY BY GIULIA GHIRARDI THERE IS A SECRET to scrutinizing life: often, what is essential is invisible to the eye. It was in New York in 1943 that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry published The Little Prince, a work that entrusts a fox with the complicated task of reflecting on the importance of making the invisible visible. Eighty years have passed since then and the story has been translated into almost 500 languages, making it the secondmost translated work after the Bible. The question remains, then: after all these years, what has become of the little fox’s teachings? Perhaps the answer can be found hidden in many small slivers scattered across time and the world. One began in 1960 in Piacenza with a cat. “My mother had a cat from which she contracted toxoplasmosis during her pregnancy,” explains Bersani. Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by the infection of a parasite that can be transmitted to humans from other animals, and especially from cats. Infection is usually asymptomatic in adults but can be particularly dangerous during pregnancy due to the risks that the parasite can have on fetuses, including miscarriages or developmental problems. “In my case, it caused blindness. It affected the maculae of the retina, the part of the eye responsible for vision and the perception of details in which images are formed,” Bersani said. “Mine is total blindness, though I am able to process some visual information. The macula works like a digital zoom, so from very close-up, what I see is a pretty accurate image, because I can utilize the little resolution I have. From a distance, everything gets worse because it is as if I took a very high-resolution image, cropped it, and enlarged it, the result being that all the details are lost.” Then there is the question of colors. “I can’t see them. Without maculae, there aren’t colors. I know them, I can manage them and from a certain point of view master them, because I studied them. But I can’t see the color. My vision is only in shades of grey,” he said, “as you sighted people understand it; for me, grey doesn’t exist, as I have never actually seen it.” This condition accompanied Bersani throughout his youth, in his studies, work, and relationships. “In accountancy school, I always sat in the front row but couldn’t see what was written on the board; I could only listen. COURTESY OF SCARP DE’ TENIS / INSP.NGO 10 DENVER VOICE March 2025
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