Painter tries to capture macular degeneration in his art

Adam Hahn

British Artist Adam Hahn says in The Times in the UK that his late grandmother inspired his new series of 17 portraits of people with age-related macular degeneration, which are painted in a way that illustrates how they see the world with their visual impairment.

“Grandma had macular degeneration. It was my way of trying to understand how she saw the world and how it affected her,” says Hahn, 29, who studied at the Glasgow School of Art. “While she was alive she never talked about her sight or how it affected her. People with macular degeneration don't tend to talk about what they see. I think it's because it's a very personal experience and they don't want other people to know because it might upset them.

“The condition is very disabling at the beginning, but people do accept it and get on. With macular degeneration you will always have some degree of vision; you rely on using the peripheral vision that you have left.”

The portraits are now on exhibition in Kent.