Photographers contact Playboy daily, hoping for a chance to shoot models and
become part of the Playboy legacy. Two prominent blind photographers, Bruce
Hall and Peter Eckert, contacted Playboy expressing their interest in working
with us. We thought it was an interesting idea and agreed to give them the
opportunity to photograph a Playmate, Miss June 2004 *Hiromi Oshima*.
Shooting for Playboy turned out to be even more exciting than both Hall and
Eckert imagined. Bruce Hall is legally blind with five percent normal
eyesight, complicated by a constant movement of the eyes that can't be
corrected with glasses. "Cameras, technology and other optical devices are
a way to see detail I would otherwise never see," says Hall, who has 30
years of underwater and nature photography experience. This Playboy shoot
required use of his intuition and imagination. "As a scuba diver and a
person who is at home in water, I wanted to shoot in, around and underwater.
Some of these photos were taken at night. I am night blind, so I knew this
would be a challenge—if not impossible," Hall says. "Hiromi was a joy
to work with. She is a total pro: exotic, beautiful and very comfortable in
water." A trained carpenter and sculptor, Peter Eckert lost his vision as
an adult due to the eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa. He discovered
photography after going blind, experimenting with the infrared setting on a
'50s Kodak camera. Eckert uses touch and "echo-locates" while shooting
his subjects in the dark. Many of his conceptual photographs depict colored
electric charges and light radiating from behind his subjects. "I wanted to
stand on Playboy's ideas and push further," he says of this assignment.
He does not read the Braille edition of Playboy although he notes that its
availability in 1970 was a "pivotal point" in blind history. As one of
Playboy's first blind photographers, Eckert makes history himself by
photographing Hiromi, whom he describes as an "angel spirit." See all the
photos from this special photoshoot inside the Playboy Cyberclub. See more of
Hiromi Oshima at Playboy