Alliance Française of Madras Hosts Photography Show by Visually Impaired Artists

A unique blind photography exhibition titled 'The Art of Seeing Differently' was inaugurated on August 19 at the Alliance Française of Madras, showcasing photographs taken by 30 visually impaired individuals from across India.

The exhibition features large-format images displaying scenes such as sunlight filtering through dense canopies, a green leaf set against withered foliage, forest floors, shaded roads, and a spotted deer. To make the art fully accessible, every panel includes Braille descriptions alongside tactile QR codes powered by the Spacefelt app, developed by Grailmaker Innovations. Scanning the codes provides audio descriptions of the images in Tamil and English, as well as sign-language videos for visitors with hearing impairments.

The featured photographs were produced during a three-day workshop conducted from July 3 to 5 at IIT Madras. The initiative was spearheaded by Professor Hemachandran Karah of the Accessibility Research Centre (ARC) at IIT Madras, which focuses on making various disciplines accessible to everyone. The centre collaborated with Partho Bhowmick, who previously delivered lectures on blind photography under ARC's 'Disability and Disciplines' programme.

The workshop brought together 30 participants selected from Mumbai, Gujarat, Delhi, Chennai, and other parts of Tamil Nadu. Each participant was paired with a student co-creator from the Department of Media Studies at SRMIST, Ramapuram. Together, they learned camera fundamentals, framing techniques, and spatial perception before capturing photographs across the IIT Madras campus.

Participants relied on sound, touch, and spatial awareness to compose their shots. Nagarajan, a professor at Presidency College who participated in the initiative, noted that practical sessions helped him understand subject distances and camera handling from a technical perspective, giving him the confidence to capture nature and other subjects.

'The Art of Seeing Differently' remains open to the public at the Alliance Française of Madras gallery until August 26.