You See What I See

You See What I See is a project enabling young adults with Autism to communicate with you, the viewer, through the images they have produced.



Autism, as defined by the National Autistic Society, is 'a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people. It also affects how they make sense of the world around them'.



In a series of You See What I See photography workshops, young adults with autism came together to learn and experiment with different ways of taking photographs and to work towards an exhibition – You See What I See.



Each workshop had its own challenges – new environment, new ideas, new tasks. Each participant rose to the challenge. A young man, nervous of the outdoors, stepped outside to photograph the sky and the ground: another got to grips with trying out scene modes: photographing people rather than objects was a different kind of challenge for some: working at a difficult shot was a challenge for one young lady: for another, just changing the way she looked at familiar scenes was a revelation.



Choosing the images for You See What I See was an important part of the project. From emphatic finger pointing and monosyllabic yesses to long, thoughtful soliloquies, everyone was fully engaged

in reviewing their work and making choices. The reasons for choices were varied - ‘it makes me remember when’... ‘you can see the movement, although it is fixed’... ‘I hadn’t seen it like that before’... ‘Harry Potter’... ‘It was hard work squeezing in’…



You See What I See now exists as a book and a touring exhibition of the work produced by these young adults with autism. You are invited to share the view these young adults with autism have and think about the way they have chosen to communicate through their images.