OPTO - Changing Colour Perception
OPTO is a photography project that re-frames colour blindness as a valid and valuable way of seeing. It invites viewers to experience the world through colour blind perspectives using simulated lenses and imagery. By questioning the idea of “normal” vision, OPTO challenges assumptions about perception and highlights how difference can shape creativity, deepen empathy, and expand how we understand visual culture.
The OPTO toolkit is a custom designed photography and perception kit that explores and celebrates the lived experiences of colour blindness. Housed in a laser cut box, it contains four interchangeable lens filters – Protanopia, Deuteranopia, Tritanopia and Achromatopsia – each designed to simulate a different type of colour vision deficiency when screwed onto your camera. Below the lenses are curated photography concertinas revealing how the world might look through each filter, challenging the idea of “normal” colour perception.
The toolkit allows colour blind photographers to capture images in a way that reflects how they see the world, giving them a tool to express their own visual perspective. At the same time, it invites non colour blind individuals to experiment with a new way of seeing and image-making, encouraging empathy, creative play, and conversation around the subjectivity of vision.
Colour Blind Photography Lenses
These are the four OPTO lens filters, each designed to simulate a different type of colour blindness: Protanopia (red-deficient), Deuteranopia (green-deficient), Tritanopia (blue-deficient), and Achromatopsia (total colour blindness). Colour blind photographers can use the lenses to represent how they see the world through their own camera, while non-colourblind individuals can use them to explore alternative ways of seeing and experiment with new creative approaches to photography.
Colourblind Photography Concertinas
These concertinas are a playful and accessible part of the OPTO toolkit. Each concertina represents a different type of colour blindness and combines photography with quotes, graphics and real lived experiences. Each concertina features images taken using the OPTO lens filters to reflect how a colour blind person sees the world mixed with educational messages and lived experiences shared by colour blind individuals. The compact, tactile design encourages hands-on exploration and conversation, making the experience both informative and interactive.
Colourblind Photography Publication
This is the OPTO publication, a spiral-bound photo book titled “Changing Colour Perception: Photography Through a Colourblind Lens.” It brings together a curated selection of images taken through the four custom OPTO filters, simulating Protanopia, Deuteranopia, Tritanopia, and Achromatopsia. Each section of the book reflects a different way of seeing the world, challenging the idea of a single “correct” perception of colour. It serves both as a record of visual experimentation and a tool to provoke conversation about how deeply personal and varied colour perception can be whilst celebrating this new view.
