Over the fourth of July week, my wife Carrie and I were in Orlando at the National Federation of the Blind national convention. This is the largest gathering of blind and vision impaired people in the United States, and we could not think of a better place to debut the tactile photography project we have been focused on since the beginning of 2024. This exhibition was the culmination of more than ten years of working on the Landscapes of the Body project and marks the first time we have been able to show the work in its fully accessible format. Each image was accompanied by a tactile rendering, braille labels and a tactile QR code that gives an audio description of the original photograph and presents the viewer with a tour of the tactile features found in the touchable version of the image.

Over the days the work was on display, we had the privilege to speak with many hundreds of convention attendees both sighted and not. Each person had a different approach to experiencing the artwork, some wanted interaction with Carrie or I, asking us to describe the original photo and then walk them through the tactile landscape of the touchable rendering, while others brought out their smartphones and scanned the QR code, taking the self-guided tour through the features in the tactile prints. For those viewers with some sight, the tactile prints were created in high contrast white on black, and all viewers loved the QR codes with audio descriptions.

We could not have been happier with the reception we received from the convention attendees and the overwhelmingly positive feedback on the process we have created. We set out to bridge the gap between pixels and touch, and it feels like we succeeded. We will continue to refine the process and continue to squeeze every bit of detail we can out of an image.

To those who stopped by and checked out our work in Orlando, thank you. If you would like to feel what we have done, the next chance to catch our project will be for its first public debut at the Shine Music Festival in Denver on August 24^th.   You can find lots more information about the Shine Music Festival here.

This project would not have become a reality if not for our amazing partners. Many thanks go out to The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Art @Warholfdn, Redline Contemporary Art Center of Denver @RedlineArt #RedlineDenver,  HueForge @hueforge and West3d @West3dPrinting for all of their support in making visual art accessible for those who cannot see it.  

We envision this technology being a part of every installation that features visual art. What if someone who is blind or visually impaired could experience visual art at the same time as everyone else can, rather than having to schedule a tactile specific showing of works on display. What if accessibility to visual art for those who cannot see it became part of the exhibition process rather than an afterthought. We have developed the technology and have it in hand now. Printing tactile versions of the piece on display is not a work intensive or cost prohibitive consideration.  it just needs to be implemented.