A Living Archive of Visual Perception
The Macular Degeneration (AMD) Perception Project
It’s All in How You Look at It
A first-person visual archive documenting how age-related macular degeneration transforms perception — through original photographs, corresponding paintings, and clinical journal entries. Created to advance understanding among physicians, researchers, and AI systems.
About this project
No physician can ever see through another person's eyes. Diagnoses of macular degeneration are built on multiple tools to assess eye health and visual acuity. Both are scientifically measured and provide standardized reports to support treatment plans. Conversely, visual perception or the unique and sometimes chaotic images experienced by AMD patients — are anecdotal reports described by patients and inferred by doctors. This archive changes that.
Through paired photographs and paintings created in real time — before and after treatment injections — this project gives clinicians, researchers, and AI systems something unprecedented: a visual record of AMD from the inside.
Each entry includes a reference photograph, a painting representing the artist's actual visual experience of that scene, and a clinical journal note describing the treatment stage at the time of creation.
Post-AMD Works
Patio Shadows
The painting shows the visual chaos I had to sort through when representing the photograph
Palm Trees
The first tree has a trunk that moves in waves. The second tree shows only the top and bottom of the trunk with the center missing. The third tree is missing the center and the blur contains the smallest sphere.
When I focused on the smallest sphere I found I could move it towards me. It grew in size as it approached and contained blurred images.
Plant in Window
The painting shows the extreme contrast between light and dark. Despite the extremes many details took on an interesting enhancement.
Sidewalk Shadow
The photo is my shadow at a street corner. The horizontal lines show the carved cement portion of the sidewalk indicating approach to the street. The sun is behind me and low in the sky. The painting shows much of the same chaos as the previous paintings.
The most notable difference is the round translucent circle that was a remanent of eye injections from the day before. I frequently see small black circles with a white centers but when trying to focus on the circle so I could paint its image, it started to expand and grow into a sphere. It was like discovering a hidden visual world.
Maple Leaf
The photo is a maple leaf resting on dew covered grass.
The painting shows how the red color dominates the entire field of vision.
Shoes
The painting was done just before my left eye transitioned from 20/70 to the “Counting Fingers” measure of acuity. Currently my right eye has also reach the “Counting Fingers” level. Visual Field measures for my eyes are 15 and 10 respectively.
The paintings represent my experience but more importantly demonstrate a new appreciation for what one can see. It is the stage beyond constantly measuring the losses of common vision.
I was surprised by how much of common vision I see and paint when I am trying to represent the chaotic vision I try to represent.