Award-winning 3D photographs, created by a student to help benefit blind people, have been showcased in an end of year exhibition.
Ulster University’s Belfast school of art's annual degree show gives final year students the opportunity to showcase the pieces they have been working on throughout the academic year.
This year’s showcase was a particular success for final year photography student Emily McEvoy, who has produced a series of three-dimensional photographs entitled The Space Between.
The aim of the piece is to give blind or partially sighted people the opportunity to experience photography in a new and inclusive way.
Art is often exclusively created for a sighted or blind audience. However, by taking conventional photography to a third dimension, her work can be experienced by anyone, regardless of their level of vision, either interpreting via the eye or fingertip.
“My work was inspired by my parents. My mum is registered visually impaired and my dad, registered blind," she said.
"I have ironically picked a very visual career and I always felt that my mum and dad would never be able to appreciate my photography. This led me to create tactile photographs which can be felt by blind and visually impaired people."
Her art has been described as revolutionary by her peers and a fascinating exploration into the relationship between familial connection and sight.
“I think family has always been at the forefront of my work. I wanted to make something which my parents could experience and enjoy.”
To achieve the creation of a three-dimensional photograph, Ms McEvoy used lithophane, a 19th Century translucent material which can be moulded to varying thickness. The idea being that when the material is lit from behind it forms an image.
However, in The Space Between, the varying thicknesses of the material was used to create different textures, allowing the blind and visually impaired to feel their way around the photographs.
“It’s a much more modernised process now. All I had to do was convert my JPEG file into a STL file using a lithophane generator and send that off to be 3D printed.
"I was so pleased when I received the first print and after showing it to my parents, I knew that this process could work to allow the blind and visually impaired to experience photography.”
Ms McEvoy’s work has attracted much attention and she recently received the Jill Todd photography award. She hopes this will help her work to reach a larger audience and provide visually impaired and blind people with the experience of viewing photographs.
“I want to create an environment where both sighted and non-sighted people can have conversations about the same art pieces.”
Ms McEvoy has been accepted onto the Master of Fine Art Photography course in Ulster University where she hopes to have more time to develop this project. She said she would love to see if she can push the medium even further.
“My ultimate goal is to make 3D photographs which need as little context as possible. I’m hoping the masters will give me the chance to research and expand my work.”
