In the lens of photographer Sanne De Wilde, Pingelap, a small coral island in the Pacific Ocean, nothing is as it seems. Her photos depict a tropical paradise where jungle vegetation is light pink, the sea is gray and locals see each other in black and white. Belgian photography brings the world not as it sees it - but as the islanders imagine it.
Pingelap is home to a large number of people who cannot distinguish colors. Acromatopsia (the inability to distinguish colors) is prevalent in about 1 in 30,000 people worldwide, while in Pingelap it is believed that about 4% -10% of residents do not distinguish colors.
The widespread spread is thought to be related to an 18th-century king who, after surviving a catastrophic tsunami, wanted to repopulate Pingelap with many children. But many of his descendants inherited the rare gene that causes acromatopsia, which is already inherited from generation to generation.
For them, color is just a word. Fascinated by the way genetics shape people and communities, De Wilde has published photos in a book called The Island of the Colorblind. She tries to see the world through the eyes of the inhabitants by editing the tones of colors. Residents claim to see most of the red color, so De Wilde edited the red. Others said that green is the preferred color, although this is one of the nuances that people with this disorder see less of.
"It wasn't easy to get to Pingelap," De Wilde said. "It simply came to our notice then. A small dot in a big blue. ? Upon arrival, she discovered that there were no shops or restaurants on the island. People survive by eating coconuts and fish.
"People with acromatopsia are extremely sensitive to light, which prevents them from living on a sunny tropical island. They find it difficult to keep their eyes open when they are outside. They don't see the color at all. That's why everything looks gray in the shadows - something between black and white. I didn't change any colors, but the infrared camera changed them. I converted the images to black and white and edited them with photoshop. ?
Source: CNN
