'Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists Exhibit' Comes to Bedford Gallery

Bedford Gallery presents works by some of the world’s most accomplished blind photographers with the exhibition Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists, exploring the nature of seeing. With photography as their medium, the 13 featured artists navigate with other senses to visualize and represent the space around them. Blind photographers are said to operate at the heart of the medium, sometimes called the zero point of photography, occupying image as idea, idea as image. 

Sight Unseen will be on view July 8 through September 17, 2023, from 12:00pm-5:00pm, Wednesday through Sunday at Bedford Gallery inside Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Dr, Walnut Creek. For more information or to purchase pay-what-you-can* tickets, visit www.bedfordgallery.org. Pay-what-you-can- tickets for Sight Unseen are available for purchase online or at the door. Bedford Gallery will be open for special hours on Saturday, July 8, 2023, kicking off with a member preview, followed by a public opening reception ($5 for non-members) – see hours below. *As of July 1, Bedford Gallery is moving to a pay-what-you-can model to remove financial barriers for entry to the gallery.

The artists in this exhibition span a wide spectrum of sight impairment; most are completely blind, while others are legally blind, but all perceive an attenuated image of the physical world in varying degrees. Photographer Henry Butler, who was born blind, uses audio cues to capture the vibrant street life and characters in his hometown of New Orleans. A world-class musician and photographer since 1984, Butler applies the same ideas inherent in his music to his photography: be open, embrace variety, and experiment relentlessly.

A majority of the exhibition’s artists operate from memories of the sighted world, having lost their vision from disease or tragedy, including Ralph Baker, Rosita McKenzie, Kurt Weston, and Alice Wingwall. Evgen Baycar and Pete Eckert often shoot at night to communicate what they see in their minds, while Netherlands-based photographer Alex De Jong embraces assistive technologies to create his art, using software that transforms cell phone images into verbal reports that describe composition, structure, design and motion. Gerardo Nigenda, who died in 2010, collaborated with a Braille writer to punch descriptive texts directly into his photographs, making them accessible to both blind and sighted people.

For other photographers, limited sight provides a bridge between two worlds. Annie Hesse, a relentless world traveler, relies on her camera as her constant companion on her journeys through Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia, making photographs based on hunch, conjecture, and curiosity. Unlikely discoveries, uncanny geometric balances, and small details deliberately seen comprise the photographs of now deceased photographer Michael Richard, all captured in an intense four-year burst after losing most of his vision in a surgical accident. Bruce Hall, who retains very limited sight, treats his camera and other technological devices as extensions of his own body, using them to construct his world. Seeing With Photography Collective, “a collaboration between visually impaired and sighted photographers,” employs light within a dark room setting to paint their subjects with the shutter open, resulting in blurred, luminous distortions, and glowing forms.

Sight Unseen seeks to bring the inner visions of these artists into the seeing world, revealing a visually rich and emotionally complex blend of the physical and conceptual worlds. Curated by Douglas McCulloh and organized by Curatorial Exhibitions, the exhibition features over 100 photographs by the 13 participating artists.

This exhibition is sponsored by Diablo Regional Arts Association and Lesher Foundation. 

Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists has been curated by Douglas McColloh and originated by UCR/California Museum of Photography, an affiliate institution of ARTSblock, the University of California, Riverside, and toured by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions, Pasadena, California.