SIGHT UNSEEN catalog - California Museum of Photography ...

2
I.
Douglas McCulloh
Sight Unseen presents work by some
of the most accomplished blind photographers
in the world. It is the first major
museum exhibition on a rich subject full
of paradox and revelation. This exhibition
occupies the ground zero of photography.
The inherently conceptual work of these
artists proposes a surprising central
thesis—blind photographers possess the
clearest vision on the planet. “Heaven
gives its glimpses only to those/Not in a
position to look too close,” writes the poet
Robert Frost.
The artists of Sight Unseen—while as
divergent and individual as those found
in any collection of art-makers—produce
their work from three basic conceptual
stances. At the risk of oversimplifying,
here is a framework with which to
examine the making of this work.
One group of these artists construct,
maintain, and curate private, internal
galleries of images. Then they use
cameras to bring their inner visions into
the world of the sighted. “I photograph
what I imagine,” writes Evgen Bavcar.
“You could say I’m a bit like Don Quixote.
The originals are inside my head.” Bavcar,
Pete Eckert, Alice Wingwall, and the many
artists of the Seeing With Photography
Collective operate primarily in this mode.
Their images are elaborately realized
internal visualizations first, photographs
second. A portion of the work by Gerardo
Nigenda and Kurt Weston can also be
viewed in this light. For these artists,
photography is the process of creating
physical manifestations of images that
already exist as pure idea. Indeed, Bavcar
apologizes to sighted viewers that
they must make do with reproductions
because they cannot visit the private
gallery in his mind to see the originals.
A second group deploys cameras to
capture the outside world, but, being
blind, operate free of sight-driven
selection and self-censorship. Marcel
Duchamp wrote of “non-retinal art,” an
art of the mind, of concept, of chance.
These artists are engaged in non-retinal
photography. The results are pure, unfiltered,
and inherently conceptual. They
operate beyond the logic of composition
or the tyranny of the decisive moment.
Ralph Baker, Henry Butler, Rosita
McKenzie, and Gerardo Nigenda work
primarily in this mode. Naturally, these
artists employ senses other than sight as
pathways to vision.
For example, Henry Butler, an acclaimed
blues pianist highly attuned to the audio
world, uses sound cues as feedback to
guide his street shooting in New Orleans.
Gerardo Nigenda punches his images
with Braille descriptions of sensory
experiences—the smell, touch, or sound
of his subjects. Rosita McKenzie speaks
of photographs triggered by sound and
scent in the botanic gardens of Edinburgh.
The third and smallest group is legally
blind, but retain very limited, highly attenuated
sight. Most photographers see to
photograph. These artists photograph
to see. Bruce Hall, Annie Hesse, Michael
Richard, and Kurt Weston depend on
seeing devices, cameras central among
them. They live in a visual space created
by enhanced seeing. When Bruce
Hall looks into your eyes, it’ll be on his
forty-inch Sony high definition monitor.
“I think all photographers take pictures
in order to see,” says Hall, “but for me
it’s a necessity.” Susan Sontag calls
photographs objects “that make up, and
thicken, the environment we recognize as
modern.” These artists build their worlds
the modern way—one photograph at a
time. Their photographs operate in the
gap between the limitations of physical
sight and the desire for images. Kurt
Weston takes this tactic a step further.