Henry Butler, 'Polka Dots,' color photograph.
Blind people visualize imagery, inner representations of outside realities, even though their optic nerves deliver little or no input into their brains from the outside world. “Sight Unseen: Images by Blind Photographers”features the diverse work of about a dozen world-renowned blind photographers. Precisely due to their blindness they avoid clichés so often relied upon by the sighted, making their visualizations materialize in ways that delight and astonish those privileged to see them. Henry Butler, a classically trained musician from New Orleans, relies on audio clues, intuition and his sense of smell to lead him to vivid portrayals of hometown entertainers. Rosita McKenzie rides open-air buses through the streets of Edinburgh, taking photographs an assistant later translates into black line drawings with raised surfaces that McKenzie can touch with her fingers and decipher like visual Braille, enabling her to “see” her world. Kurt Weston depicts the aging, disease ridden and marginalized, using scanner beds to capture the essence of his subjects’ loss and despair with overtones of hyper-realism and immediacy. The possibilities are astonishing, and the results are inspiring. This is no novelty exhibition.
Published courtesy of ArtScene
