MANISTEE — Nearly 12 million people over the age of 40 across the nation suffer from vision loss. One artist in Manistee is proving vision loss doesn’t mean losing vision altogether.
Photos line the walls of a small shop called Pure Manistee. The pictures include sunsets, ships and lighthouses. They are scenes bursting with color. But the woman behind the lens doesn’t see them the way most of us do.
Laura McLellan is legally blind.
“It turns out my central vision was going away, I would look at a stoplight and I would look directly at it, and I wouldn’t see it any longer,” said McLellan. “Whereas when I look away from it, I can see it out of the peripheral, my peripheral vision is what I’m using.”
McLellan has stargardt eye disease, a form of macular degeneration. By 28, doctors discovered she was color blind. By 33, she was legally blind in both eyes. She described her vision as looking through water streaked glass; blurry, never crisp.
“I’ve heard somebody describe it as the coolest and cruelest magic trick. So, I have a blind spot in the middle, I don’t see what I’m looking directly at,” said McLellan.
The diagnosis changed everything, she can no longer drive. Four years ago, after moving to Manistee, she became captivated by lake Michigan sunsets and started focusing on landscape photography.
“I know I see things differently, but it’s still beautiful. The winter, the snow, all of it. And so I started really getting into landscape photography,” said McLellan.
She memorizes her camera buttons and settings, relying on feel and repetition. She prints her photos with special ink, then heat-presses them onto metal, fabric and other materials turning blurred vision into tangible art.
“This allows me to be able to support my family. But also gives me a purpose and gives me something to do. It gives me that creative outlet,” said McLellan.