When you walk through the Canon: World Unseen exhibition at Somerset House, you quickly realise that it is more than just an average photography exhibition. At each juncture, it defies the limitations of the camera lens and the eye to tap into every sense possible.
Developed with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) as part of a Canon campaign, the exhibition raises awareness of the impact of different visual impairments by showcasing how conditions including diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, cataracts and more impact vision.
For sighted people, like myself, each of the images displayed is blurred in a way that conveys how vision is changed by the conditions.
In addition, each image is accompanied by an audio description told in the photographer’s voice (which can be accessed here), highlighting the message and tone of each photograph, rather than merely describing the colours and shapes in the picture.
Alongside each photograph, there are also images printed with tactile relief printing, which enhance the experience of all – whether they are blind, partially sighted or sighted.
Crucially for Canon, it is also an opportunity to showcase how its technology can be used for good.
According to Canon brand and sponsorship senior manager, EMEA Pete Morris, while much of the technology has been around for a number of years, people tend to think of Canon as a brand that makes cameras.
He highlights that its purpose goes beyond that – and explains the brand philosophy includes the Japanese ideal of ‘kyosei’, which means living and working for the common good and creating an environment in which everyone can grow.
“We want this experience to be accessible to everyone, and we hope that through the technology visitors can have a deeper connection to the stories behind the images,” he says.
Subscribe to Marketing Beat for free
Sign up here to get the latest marketing news sent straight to your inbox each morning
How inclusion can add another dimension to storytelling
RNIB inclusive design ambassador Dave Williams concurs: “When you make an experience more inclusive and accessible, you don’t just make it better for blind and partially sighted people, you make it better for everybody.”
He highlights that blind and partially sighted people, whether they have some vision or none, understand that the meaning of photography is storytelling.
“We understand that photography is about sharing a moment, a memory, or a message. So it’s fantastic to have this opportunity to challenge the low expectations people sometimes have about what blind people can do and what they are interested in,” Williams says.
He explains that when the RNIB got wind of Canon’s idea, the organisation was excited about the idea of working together with the brand and seeing what the exhibition could do, “Over the next few days more than 700 people are going to hear the audio and touch the tactiles – whether they can see them or not”.
The range of stories told also spotlight inclusion, with indigenous stories such as a Shaman praying to his goddess in the mountains photographed by Sebastião Salgado, sitting alongside sports photography such as Lioness Chloe Kelly’s goal against Germany in the UEFA Women’s Euros 2022 final by Marc Aspland.
It also includes a 3D ultrasound impression created by ultrasound specialist Bill Smith for a lady Karen, who is registered blind so that she could trace the outline of her baby.
Accessibility
The agency behind the creative, VML, conceptualised the idea based on the idea of accessibility.
“We started from the question if we broadly agree that images can change the world, how do we improve accessibility?,” agency creative director San Sharma explains.
“We pursued this idea of making images more accessible to people who are blind or partially sighted. The idea was quite radical really, for a brand like Canon, who are all about what you see, to take the visuals away,” he adds.
By incorporating tactile relief print and other innovations from Canon, VML also had to look at other features to make them more accessible for people who are blind or partially sighted.
A crucial part of the process included working with the photographers themselves for the voiceovers.
“When a photographer takes a picture, it is an artistic expression that someone has made the choice to crop in a certain way, or frame in a certain way,” says Sharma.
“When you have someone disconnected from that process describing the photo, they are missing the nuances the photographer has decided to include.”
For Williams, one of the images that was particularly impactful was of Slovenian paralympic athlete Darko Đurić, by world-renowned sports photographer Samo Vidić.
“He’s clearly a very strong, very muscular swimmer. I can’t see the picture but I’m able to feel the outstretched arm and the shape of his hand, and his head and his body. And for me, as a disabled man, it’s hugely important to be able to discover depictions of different disabilities in exhibitions like this one,” Williams says.
How can Canon’s activation impact beyond the exhibition?
Following the exhibition, Canon is set to roll out the idea across other locations in the EMEA region, with smaller versions of the concept in other cities. A series of films has also been produced online, featuring photographers paired with a blind or visually impaired person with a similar passion.
“Every time you do an accessibility project in advertising, the next one becomes better and richer because you incorporate those learnings,” says Sharma.
“I’ve had people in the agency come up to me for other projects to ask about how do they get the audio descriptions right, how do they get the closed captions right.”
Williams highlights that, as well as working with Canon on the exhibition the RNIB have delivered training so that “when blind and partially sighted people come through, everybody feels confident about how to greet, how to guide, how to communicate, and just get it right to make sure everyone feels welcomed”.
“Any organisation that wants to grow their market, make their content more compelling and more engaging, thinking about inclusive design and accessibility can come to the RNIB,” concludes Williams.
“I hope this exhibition is more than a flash in the pan and – ultimately – sets the standards future exhibitions aspire to match.”
