Written by Adam Ellick, Head of Opinion Video, July 14, 2021

On the Opinion Video team, we think a lot about millennials and Gen Zers who express their world views primarily through video. We scour the internet for members of this rising generation of D.I.Y. video makers. Every so often we find a largely unknown artist whose visual commentary leaves us in awe.

That happened this year when I discovered the work of James Robinson, a 25-year-old self-taught video creator who started when he was 11.

James sent me a 23-minute film called “Whale Eyes.” The video was both excruciatingly awkward and illuminating.

James has a visual disability that makes it difficult to coordinate and focus his eyes, which skew in different directions. That means he sees the world in ever-moving motions. It’s hard and sometimes dangerous for him to do everyday things like slice cheese.

This disability also shapes his social encounters: James has spent his life wrestling with the awkwardness of people not knowing where to look when they talk to him.

While growing up, James had repeated conversations with his parents about every imaginable remedy, including corrective surgery. But they essentially never discussed the social and emotional impact of his disability. In the film, James confronts his family, on camera, for the first time about one of the most important conversations that never occurred at their dinner table.“I don’t have a problem with the way that I see,” he says. “My only problem is with the way that I’m seen.”

To me, the film shows the enormous power of silence and the lengths we go to in order to avoid the uncomfortable. It makes me regret the meaningful conversations that never took place at my dinner table during my childhood.

One of James’s brothers had never bothered to find out what it was like for James to live with his eyes. And his father nervously insists that James has beautiful eyes before asking, “What color are they?”

I worked with James over several months to edit his film into a 12-minute video that we are premiering online today. James has an important story to tell, and video is the perfect medium for it. His film offers a lesson in broaching the uncomfortable, and in navigating differences.