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What’s your favourite thing to look at? Your dog’s face? The most unbelievably Instagrammable poké bowl EVER? A sprawling autumn sunset where the sky is on fire? Now imagine that you know you’re going blind: what’s the last image you would want to see, the one that would stay with you? That’s the agonising question asked by a new free photography show, ‘Blink’, at Oxo Tower, supporting trachoma charity Sightsavers.
Trachoma is a condition that affects nearly 142 million people across the world, many of them children. It’s painful, slow, and – untreated – leads to permanent, total blindness. But it’s also curable and preventable. Sightsavers is hoping to end the disease for good by 2025.
To highlight the plight of global trachoma sufferers, some world-famous photographers – including fashion don Nick Knight – have contributed to the show, which runs October 9-13. Each of them has been asked to choose an image of theirs that they would want to be the last thing they ever saw. But there’s a twist. Trachoma is characterised by compulsive blinking, and in ‘Blink’ – created by MET Studio – as the viewers stand in front of the images, their normal, natural blinking will be captured by movement technology and gradually make the images degrade and fade until they completely disappear. It’s literally blink and you’ll miss it. So don’t miss it.
‘Blink’ is at Oxo Gallery, Oxo Tower Wharf, Bargehouse St, SE1 9PH. Tube: London Bridge. Oct 9-13. Free. Find out more here.
Looking for more photography in London? Find out why we gave Tim Walker’s V&A show five stars.