Tarantino, an Associated Press photographer in Rome, described her goal as creating an image that could convey the idea of a “tactile image” — a way of experiencing art that does not rely on sight but instead centers touch and other senses. In her account, she said she had wanted to make a story about blindness for a long time, but could not find the right angle until she learned about Radici and the organization’s inclusive tours in Rome.
She said an old friend, Giorgio Guardi, told her about Radici, which runs tours that include blind visitors. Tarantino said she joined one of those tours on a cold November day, when blind, deaf and other disabled people visited Rome and encountered artworks in a format designed around tactile exploration. She said she found it especially fascinating to see how blind visitors touch objects and how a guide leads a hand over artworks.
Tarantino said the people she interviewed described that the experience involved more than touch alone. She said they explained that elements such as the voice of the guide, scents, and the sense of an intimate connection with artworks help create the so-called tactile image. She then looked to a photographic precedent when she began working out how to translate those sensory elements into an image.
She said she remembered Gjon Mili’s late-1940s series of portraits of Picasso, which showed Picasso tracing sketches in the air as light trails. Tarantino said the photos were published on LIFE in 1949, and she treated Mili’s approach as a reference point for building a picture that could suggest hands exploring art while the viewer cannot “see” in the usual way. She said she sought input from the head of communications at the Museo Tattile Omero, who connected her with Stefania Terre, a blind woman she consulted about her idea.
Tarantino said she and Terre met at the Museo Omero and she followed Terre on the tour before they experimented with the photography technique. She described waiting until the museum closed and the staff turned off the lights, leaving them in darkness for the exposure. In that setting, she said she gave Terre a small LED light and created a ring from an elastic band so Terre could wear the LED on her finger.
Tarantino said Terre then explored the face of Michelangelo’s David at natural size, while Tarantino set up the camera on a tripod and took a 24-second exposure photograph. She said she set the camera to ISO 50, with the aperture at f/16, and that during the 24 seconds the shot captured Terre’s hand as it moved over the face with the LED light placed on one of Terre’s fingers to illuminate the statue. She also said a little light filtered from outside to slightly illuminate Terre’s face, and that the resulting image shows David’s face emerging from the darkness with Terre faintly visible in the background and glimpses of her hand at times.
In discussing why the photo works, Tarantino said it can help people “see” things differently and connect with art in a way that emphasizes touch. She said one of the Museo Tattile Omero’s slogans was “Forbidden not to touch,” and she described the image as reflecting the museum’s emphasis that understanding beauty in art can come through touch as well as sight. She also said the outcome was not fully predictable, even after tests, because “the real-life situation is always unpredictable.”