Robert H. King
Shadow Of An Echo +
Everything Near Becomes Distant
3rd September – 11th October 2026
Gallery 103
Two sets of work presented together by Robert H. King, a visually impaired Digital Photographic Artist, which offer a powerful, complementary exploration of sight loss, memory and identity. Through self-portraiture via medical imagery and abstract digital works, the exhibitions move beyond familiar stereotypes to reveal lived experience as layered, complex and deeply creative, inviting audiences to see sight loss not as absence, but as a transformed way of perceiving the world.
Shadow Of An Echo explores the photographer’s sight loss through a series of evocative, multi-layered self-portraits that challenge traditional notions of vision and artistry.
King combines Retinal scans, fluorescein angiograms, photos of medical equipment and treatment rooms captured during his medical appointments, hospital visits and post-surgery, transforming clinical experiences into art. The images touch on various stages and emotions of sight loss like anger, denial and grief whilst drawing attention to some of the clichéd tropes of blindness: helplessness, infantilisation and darkness.
Going beyond focusing on disability, the work presents the artist as a creative individual, transcending socially established notions of how blindness and visual impairment is portrayed and represented in contemporary visual culture.
In Everything Near Becomes Distant, King asks, “Imagine losing not just your sight, but the very memory of it. That’s a different kind of blindness. It’s seldom talked about, but many who lose sight later in life experience the loss of their mental ‘visual library’. Over time, images of loved ones, places, and landscapes fade, leaving only faint traces of colours and light. A cruel twist on the initial trauma of losing sight.
These abstract digital images evoke the indistinct landscapes of colour and light I recall from positive past moments. Offering insight on individual identity and the fragmentary nature of visual memory, particularly for those of us with sight loss.”
Robert H. King is a Visually Impaired Digital Artist and Photographer. His practice centres on sight loss, personal identity and memory.
He has exhibited work in solo and group shows in California, Glasgow, London, Perth and West Dunbartonshire. In 2014/15 his Seeing The Unseen exhibition was the first of its kind in Scotland to have been produced entirely using an iPhone and iPad.
Recently Robert was a Community Curator working on a display for The Kelvin Hall with RNIB and the Learning and Access Team at Glasgow Museums. In 2024/25 Shadowplay, a digital short about Robert’s work produced by Street Level Photoworks, toured the Highlands and Islands on Scotland’s mobile cinema. He has devised and delivered many mobile photography and digital art workshops, including three for the Robert Mapplethorpe TATE Artists Rooms touring exhibition.
He featured in Blind Ambition, a BBC Arts documentary about sight loss and creativity, and was commissioned to produce a number of works for its accompanying exhibition. He was shortlisted for a Lord Provost's Award for Outstanding Artwork, and was a winner and received honourable mentions in the Digital Mobile Art and Creativity Summit in Palo Alto and had honourable mentions in the first International Mobiography Awards.
The initial exhibitions were initially made possible with a Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award from Creative Scotland and West Dunbartonshire Council.
The exhibition is part of the Season of Photography 2026, a celebration of photography in Scotland running from 1st September – 20th December 2026.
https://www.rhking.net @rhkingart @roberthking.bsky.social
Images: © Robert H King
