‘I’m visually impaired, but I got to see my unborn baby’: Blind photography exhibition World Unseen features incredible ultrasound scan
Running her fingers over her scan for the first time, Karen Trippass could feel straight away that her unborn baby had her husband’s nose.
Born with bilateral coloboma, a rare condition also known as cat-eye syndrome, she never thought she would experience this pregnancy milestone in the same way that sighted expectant mums do, the excitement of seeing the shifting black and white shapes of a growing embryo appearing on screen for the first time.
It was something she missed out on while pregnant with her eldest daughter, Phoebe, 10 years ago. Questioned by medical staff and social workers on her ability to care for a newborn at that time, Karen says being visually impaired meant she was treated differently and she suffered from depression, finding it difficult to bond with her baby before her birth.
Karen’s raised baby scan helped her ‘see’ her unborn daughter while she was pregnant. Pic: World Unseen
This time round, she was able to “meet” her baby through her 29-week ultrasound thanks to technology that creates a raised image, providing a tactile feel of her child wriggling in her womb. She says having this, and also being able to hear the heartbeat, helped her feel more connected.
Karen’s second daughter, Ruby, is now eight weeks old, and her scan hangs up at their home in Surrey.
“The first thing I remember noticing was her nose,” she says. “She’s got my husband’s nose. I could feel the top of her head, her nose, the dip of her eyes… I’ll always treasure it.
Pic: World Unseen
“Both my babies are IVF, it took us a long time to get there. So the whole thing’s emotional anyway, but then getting to see your baby like everybody else does… I just hope that every visually impaired woman who has a baby could get that opportunity.
“I don’t expect the NHS to be rolling it out, but even if you had to pay a minimal charge, I think a lot of people would prefer it. I just think it’s amazing, the concept of having family pictures from now on would be pretty cool.”
According to the NHS, there are more than two million people living with sight loss in the UK, with around 340,000 registered as blind or partially sighted.
Karen’s scan of Ruby was created by camera firm Canon, and is being featured as part of its new World Unseen exhibition, launched in partnership with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) – “the photography exhibition you don’t need to see”.
The World Unseen exhibition features photos paired with braille, elevated images and audio descriptions. Pic: World Unseen/Canon
Designed completely with the experience of blind and partially sighted people in mind, the exhibition features a series of pictures taken by world-renowned photographers, some who are visually impaired, accompanied with elevated prints, audio descriptions, soundscapes and braille.
For sighted people, traditional images are obscured in different ways to convey different types of visual impairment, from glaucoma to diabetic retinopathy. It is an insight into the difficulties faced by blind and partially sighted people, a challenge to see life through their lens, and a reminder of the vision those of us with sight rely on and take for granted every day.
At the launch event, even the canapes play with your senses – we are encouraged to put on headphones playing sounds of the sea, a scent spray filling the air with salt and vinegar, as fish and chip nibbles are presented.
Pic: World Unseen/Canon
Among the photographers whose work is featured is Ian Treherne, from Essex, who is known as the Blind Photographer. Born with the condition RP Type 2 Usher Syndrome, he has been deaf since birth and over the years has lost almost 95% of his sight.
“I hid my blindness for years,” he says. “I acted as a sighted person for a very long time. When I was growing up, disability was a very, awkward, difficult topic. Only my close friends knew about it. Then in my 30s, I sort of ‘came out’ as a blind person and it’s done me the world of good to be open and honest about it. And I think by doing photography and working alongside other people with disabilities, you can really improve the bigger picture among the general public.”
Pic: World Unseen/Canon
Ian says he has always been creative and photography allowed him to capture moments in time as he was losing his sight. But there was also a rebelliousness behind his desire to get behind the camera.
“I knew that doing photography and being blind was going to hurt some minds, hurt some brains,” he says. “I knew it would raise some questions.”
So he taught himself, practising with his camera and researching on the internet. “With the condition I’ve got, I have to work probably 10, 20 times harder than a fully sighted person,” he says.
“It’s all a learning curve. I think that’s really the biggest boundary in society, it’s changing the mindsets, or adjusting the mindsets. I think people are sometimes just afraid to ask the question.”
These images of Lioness Chloe Kelly’s Euro 2022 final goal are obscured to show how a person with a visual impairment might see them. Pic: World Unseen/Canon
The World Unseen exhibition feature works from world-renowned photographers and Canon ambassadors from around the globe, including Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, Nigerian photojournalist Yagazie Emezi, sports photographer Samo Vidic, fashion photographer Heidi Rondak, and Pulitzer-winning photojournalist Muhammed Muheisen.
A photograph from Kenya of the last male northern white rhino, taken by award-winning South African photojournalist Brent Stirton, also features. You can feel the roughness, every groove of the animal’s skin, as you run your fingers over the elevated image.
Photographs of Lioness Chloe Kelly’s decisive goal in the Euro 2022 final at Wembley, by Marc Aspland, are also on display, with an audio description reliving the moment of the win.
But Ruby, of course, is the star of the show, cradled by her mum in front of her scan. “It’s funny to think of people feeling Ruby’s picture but I love the idea that quite a lot of visually impaired people will feel what a scan picture is like, because I didn’t know what to expect,” Karen says.
“To have this memory, this opportunity to ‘see’ – I say see, or feel – my baby before she was born was awesome. And to have a record of it and get to show Ruby when she’s older, it’s so special.”
The World Unseen exhibition has opened at Somerset House, in central London, and runs over the weekend
Entertainment
Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail
A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.
Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.
“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.
The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.
Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.
He also set up social media accounts in his name.
Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.
Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.
The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”
Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.
Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”
Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”
Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”
The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.
‘I know where you live’
On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.
The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.
Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”
Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA
Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.
The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.
“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.
“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”
Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA
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Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.
He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”
Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.
Gary Glitter has been made bankrupt after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman he abused when she was 12 years old.
She sued the disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, after he was found guilty of attacking her and two other schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.
Glitter, 80, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 and released in 2023 but was recalled to prison less than six weeks later after breaching his parole conditions.
A judge awarded the woman £508,800, including £381,000 in lost earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment, saying she was subjected to abuse “of the most serious kind”.
The court heard she had not worked for decades due to the trauma of being repeatedly raped and “humiliated” by the singer.
Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015. Pic: Met Police/PA
Glitter was made bankrupt last month at the County Court at Torquay and Newton Abbot, in Devon – the county where he is reportedly serving his sentence in Channings Wood prison, in Newton Abbot.
Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the woman, said: “We confirm that Gadd has been made bankrupt following our client’s application.
“As he has done throughout, Gadd has refused to cooperate with the process and continues to treat his victims with contempt.
“We hope and trust that the parole board will take his behaviour into account in any future parole applications, as it clearly demonstrates that he has never changed, shows no remorse and remains a serious risk to the public.”
Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.
He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.
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His sentence for the 2016 convictions expires in February 2031.
Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.
But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.
Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles films – with a Stranger Things star also portraying one of the Fab Four.
The two Irish actors will be joined by London-born performers Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.
The cast for the Sam Mendes project was revealed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, with all four appearing on stage and taking a bow together in Beatles style.
(L-R) Mescal, Quinn, Keoghan and Dickinson appeared together at the announcement. Pic: Reuters
Mendes is making four interconnected films – one from the perspective of each of the band members – and they are all set to be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.
It marks the first time The Beatles and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
Playing McCartney is another big role for 29-year-old Mescal, who recently starred in the Gladiator sequel and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for Aftersun.
Barry Keoghan – who also got an Oscar nod for The Banshees of Inisherin – will portray the other surviving Beatles member, Ringo Starr.
Pic: PA
Meanwhile, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who appeared with long hair as Eddie Munson in the fourth series, takes up the role of George Harrison.
Harris Dickinson has the challenge of stepping into the shoes of perhaps the most famous Beatle, John Lennon.
The 28-year-old recently starred in erotic thriller Babygirl with Nicole Kidman and also appeared in satire Triangle of Sadness.
Mendes told the industry audience at CinemaCon there is “still plenty to explore” despite the Beatles’ rise having being well chronicled.
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The Oscar-winning British director is known for films including American Beauty, First World War movie 1917, and Bond outings Skyfall and Spectre.
Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman said the close release of all four films in three years’ time will be “the first bingeable theatrical experience”.
“We are going to dominate the culture that month,” he added.
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