‘The parrot with its squinting eye half-open was the beginning of the project; a “tropical” symbol for colours. It was later coloured by a person with colour blindness, not aware of which colours she was using yet applying them quite correctly.’

‘Jaynard, who has achromatopsia, plays with a disco light torch I brought from Belgium. I asked him what he saw. He answered “colours” and kept staring into the light’

‘On the way back from a picnic to one of the uninhabited small islands around Pingelap with all the children of the one school of the island. The bay is now protected, islanders are no longer allowed to fish for turtles. Because of the infrared colours, the scene looks very romantic. At the same time, there’s the visual connotation of the boats full of refugees setting off for a better future.’

‘Jaynard climbs a tree in the garden, to pick fruit and play. The sun comes peeking through the branches; bright light makes him keep his eyes closed. Sadly, local people don’t often grow their own food. But the trees around them naturally grow coconuts, breadfruit and bananas’

‘Eric, an achromatope, poses for a flashlight portrait. On Pingelap, there is only solar electricity. At night everyone walks along the one main street with a torch. I asked him to hold still and look at the light. Naturally, because of his sensitivity to light, his eyes rolled to the back of his head’

‘A Pingelapese child plays with fire. On the island they burn all the rubbish. At the same time, holding and moving around a burning branch is good to keep the mosquitoes away. This is a picture-painting – filled in with watercolour paint by someone with achromatopic vision’

‘A pile of fishing nets in the shape of a mountain close to the domestic airport in Pohnpei from where the tiny airplane (carrying four to six people) sets off to Pingelap.’
All photographs: Sanne De Wilde