The first time Karen Tripas ran her fingers over the scan, she immediately felt her unborn child had her husband’s nose.

She was born with bilateral coloboma, a rare condition also known as Cat Eye Syndrome, and she never thought she would experience this pregnancy milestone like a sighted mother-to-be, seeing her growing baby. The excitement of the black-and-white shape changes of the embryo as it emerges appears on screen for the first time.

It’s something she missed a decade ago when she was pregnant with her eldest daughter, Phoebe. When asked by medical staff and social workers about her ability to care for her newborn at the time, Karen said her visual impairment meant she was treated differently and that she suffered from depression and found it difficult to connect with her baby before birth. .

This time, she was able to “see” her baby during her 29-week ultrasound, thanks to technology that created a raised image that provided a tactile sensation of the baby squirming in the womb. She said having this, and being able to hear her heartbeat, helped her feel more connected.

Karen’s second daughter Ruby is now eight weeks old and her scans hang at their home in Surrey.

“The first thing I remember noticing was her nose,” she said. “She has my husband’s nose. I can feel the top of her head, her nose, the corners of her eyes… I will cherish it forever.

“Both of my kids were IVF and it took us a long time to get there. So the whole thing is pretty emotional anyway, but seeing your kids like anyone else…I just I hope every visually impaired woman with children can have this opportunity.

“I don’t expect the NHS to launch this service but even if you have to pay the minimum fee I think a lot of people will prefer it. I just think it’s fantastic and the concept of having family photos from now on would be cool. “

According to NHS figures, more than 2 million people in the UK are blind, of whom around 340,000 are registered as blind or have low vision.

Karen’s scan of the ruby ​​was produced by camera company Canon and shown as part of its new ‘Invisible World’ exhibition, launched in partnership with the Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) – ‘You don’t need See the photography exhibition “”.

Designed entirely with the experience of blind and partially sighted people in mind, the exhibition showcases a range of photographs taken by world-renowned photographers, some of whom are visually impaired, accompanied by overhead prints, audio descriptions, soundscapes and braille.

For sighted people, traditional images are occluded in different ways to convey different types of vision impairments, from glaucoma to diabetic retinopathy. It provides insight into the difficulties faced by blind and partially sighted people, the challenges of seeing life through their lenses, and reminds us of the sight that those of us who have sight rely on and take for granted every day.

At the launch event, even the canapés appealed to your senses – we were encouraged to put on headphones and the sounds of the sea played, and a scented spray of salt and vinegar filled the air while fish and chip snacks were presented.

Ian Treherne from Essex is one of the photographers, and his work is known as the “blind photographer”. Born with RP type 2 Usher syndrome, he has been deaf since birth and lost almost 95% of his vision over the years.

“I hid my blindness for years,” he said. “For a long time, I played a sighted person. When I was growing up, disability was a very, embarrassing, difficult topic. Only my close friends knew about it. And then in my 30s I kind of ‘came out’ when I was blind and being open and honest about it was a good thing for me. I think through photography and working with other people with disabilities you can really improve the overall image of the public. “

Ian said he has always been creative and photography allowed him to capture moments in time while blind. But there’s also a rebellion behind his desire to be behind the camera.

“I know photography and blindness can damage some people’s hearts and some people’s brains,” he said. “I know it’s going to cause some problems.”

So he taught himself, practicing with a camera and researching on the Internet. “With my current condition, I have to work about 10 to 20 times harder than a person with normal vision,” he said.

“It’s all a learning curve. I think that’s really the biggest line in society, and it’s changing the mindset, or adjusting the mindset. I think people are just afraid to ask the question sometimes.”

The “Invisible World” exhibition features the work of world-renowned photographers and Canon ambassadors from around the world, including Brazilian photojournalist Sebastião Salgado, Nigerian photojournalist Yagazi Emezi, Sports photographer Samo Vidic, fashion photographer Heidi Rondak and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Mohammad Muhaysen.

A photo from Kenya The last male northern white rhinoPhotographed by award-winning South African photojournalist Brent Stirton, “” will also be featured. As you run your fingers over the elevated image, you can feel the roughness and every groove of the animal’s skin.

Marc Aspland’s photo of Lioness Chloe Kelly scoring the decisive goal in the Euro 2022 final will also be on display, along with audio description recreating the victory time.

But Ruby was of course the star of the show, as her mother held her in front of the scanner. “It’s fun to think about people feeling Ruby’s pictures, but I like the idea that a lot of visually impaired people will feel what the scanned pictures looked like because I didn’t know what to expect,” Karen said.

“Having this memory, having the opportunity to ‘see’ – I say see, or feel – my baby before he was born was so amazing. To record it and show it to Ruby when she gets older , this is so special.”

The Invisible World exhibition opens at Somerset House in central London and will run throughout the weekend