BLIND MEN'S VISION ON DISPLAY PLATT LIBRARY EXHIBIT FEATURES PHOTOGRAPHERS' LENS WORK.

Byline: Michael Gougis Staff Writer

Two legally blind Southern California photographers proved their vision with a camera lens was as sharp as anyone's at this week's opening of an exhibit of their work at the Platt Branch Library in Woodland Hills.

Using special monocles and magnifying lenses, and working in abstraction, light and shadow, Kurt Weston and Michael Richard create photographs they may never have created had disease not robbed them of their vision.

``I feel I must try ... to communicate the importance of allowing the handicapped to state their artistic case, on their own terms, and on a level playing field,'' Richard, a 55-year-old Studio City resident, said at the opening.

The exhibit opened Thursday and will last through Oct. 31 at the Platt library at 23600 Victory Blvd. It commemorates National Disability Awareness Month.

Both Richard and Weston, 45, of Huntington Beach prefer black-and-white images. Weston shoots portraits, which are slightly out of focus but recognizable images. Richard's work is more abstract. One shot shows the reflection of a pool in a drinking glass.

The two men come from vastly different artistic backgrounds.

Weston was a fashion and commercial photographer whose work appeared in international magazines and in hair-product advertisements. Richard is a professional guitarist who dabbled in photography as a sideline.

Still, both share the life-altering experience of losing their sight. Both sank into depression as they struggled to adapt to their new reality. And they used the camera lens to regain a sense of purpose.

Weston was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991. The disease and the experimental treatments he used to cure it nearly killed him and virtually cost him his eyesight by 1993, he said.

``My doctor said I had six months'' to live, Weston said.

Protease inhibitors, among the strongest medicines to combat HIV, slowly eased him back to life, but caused his left eye to see only shadows. Heavily occluded, peripheral vision is all that remains in his right.

But Weston battled on and after a five-year hiatus from the camera, a friend asked him to shoot a photograph for a fund-raising calendar. It came out so well that he shot the whole calendar. Since then, Weston has been exhibiting his black-and-white photographs across the country.

Richard always had a weak left eye, but a tumor in his right eye - and the surgery to remove it - blinded him in early 2002. He said the surgery and subsequent depression laid him up for months. ``I just didn't think there was anything out there for me,'' he explained.

Richard took what he thought was an art history class at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles in September 2002. But when he got there, he found that the instructor, famous Time-Life magazine photojournalist Jack Birns, wanted the students to learn to shoot. ``He almost literally stuffed the camera into my hand,'' Richard recalled.

Earlier this year, both exhibited their photography at Insights 2003, a show at the San Francisco-based Rose Resnick LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

For each, life has changed but hasn't slowed much. Weston is heading for New York next week for another exhibit of his photography. And Richard, still a working musician, is heading for a show in Bakersfield this weekend.

Michael Gougis, [phone]

michael.gougis(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Kurt Weston, left, and Michael Richard - both legally blind- pose with some of their photographs on display through October 31 at the Platt Branch Library in Woodland Hills as part of National Disability Awareness Month.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer