Esref Armagan is a very unusual Turkish painter. His artwork has been exhibited in Turkey and abroad. Hanging in his apartment in Turkey is a framed thank you letter from Bill Clinton, an old American president, because Esref had painted his portrait.
Esref is a blind painter, born without eyes. He has never been able to see nor understand colors as normal people do. He has never been able to see sunset a flowering meadow in the Spring.
Specialists that have met him have been confused by Esref's capacities. "He moves and represents space easily, his details are precise and full of visible information (color variation, shadows, light and shade effects, light reflection, contrasts and perspective)."
His 'eyes' are his hands. When he paints, he puts the colors, which are lined up in a specific order on the table, directly onto paper. To work on a picture, he needs absolute quiet. He needs to feel that he is "inside" his painting - in fact, when he is drawing a picture of the sea, he wonders if he should wear a life jacket so as not to drown!
In the video above, scientists from Harvard University discover that Esref can see, in his mind, that objects that are farther away from him appear smaller, even though he has never seen anything in his entire life.