By Jennifer Karmarkar
Daily Titan Staff Writer
Published: March 08, 2010

In the late ’80s, Kurt Weston was a rising star in the glittering world of high-fashion. As a photographer for an international styling company, he routinely rubbed elbows with top models and designers from Sassoon and Helene Curtis, and jetted to photo shoots in Europe at a moment’s notice.

Then in 1993, complications from AIDS forced Weston onto disability. Two years later, he was diagnosed with cytomegalovirus retinitis, an inflammation of the retina that left him blind in one eye and with limited vision in the other. Gravely ill, he thought his career as a photographer was finished.

“I really thought that was it; I was really freaked out,” Weston recalled. “The thought of not being able to continue my life’s passion was horrifying. I was in a frantic battle just to stay alive. My thoughts were focused on survival and everything else paled in comparison.”

A combination of powerful antiretroviral drugs brought his AIDS under control. Now Weston, 52, who earned his MFA from Cal State Fullerton in 2008, uses his talents to help redefine others’ perception of the nature of sight.

“When I got sick and I lost my vision I had to reinvent what I do with photography. How do I do it? What do I do?” Weston said. “Now it’s not so important to make these fashion pictures; what’s more important is how do I use what I still have left of my vision and my talent as a photographer to express things in life that have real meaning.”

Weston’s most recent body of work, “Seasons in the Prayer Garden,” is on exhibit at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton through March 28. He will speak there about his work March 9 at 1:00 p.m.

The work is comprised of garden flowers and other natural scenes that he shot locally and in the Pacific Northwest in 2009, using a Nikon Digital SLR camera and lenses of varying focal lengths. Weston digitally amplified the images to bring out certain color frequencies found in nature but not normally visible to the human eye. The result is electrifying hues of color that let the viewer see the images the way a bird or a bee might see them in nature.

Some of the photos are intentionally out of focus because that’s the way Weston sees things. “I do that to let people know that something out of focus can be beautiful too,” he explained.

Two years ago, Weston was diagnosed with a rare cancer that formed multiple tumors in his abdomen. He believes that the color frequencies he finds in nature have regenerative and healing properties that keep his cancer from spreading.

Nung Rigor, 35, of Hacienda Heights, met Weston at the exhibit opening at the Muckenthaler and was impressed with his work and his spirit.

“His optimism really emulates through his art,” Rigor said. “I love the vibrant colors and exciting shades of autumn in the Pacific Northwest. When I talked to Kurt, I found that we share something in common: we both believe in the powerful energy of nature.”

Matthew Leslie, director of exhibitions at the Muckenthaler, was instantly drawn to Weston’s work when he saw it at an annual exhibition shown at the Southern California College of Optometry opening last year.

“It was just such an interesting body of work,” Leslie said. “To me (the photos) are just unearthly. Each flower he photographs has its own personality. They’re sort of all-encompassing in a beautiful way. They’re beyond poetic beauty. They’re a strange beauty; almost a dangerous beauty in some ways.”

Leslie said most people who see the show at the Muckenthaler are surprised when they learn that Weston is legally blind.

“I think at first it’s just a puzzle,” he said. “Everyone, including myself, asks the same question: how on earth do you take these photos when you can’t see much around you? And it’s just through a collection of tools and experience that he’s able to do this.”

To edit his photos, Weston uses a software program called Zoom Text, which blows up the images on his screen. He also uses a small monocular devise that allows him to see with some clarity with one eye.

Although his most recent work is color, it was Weston’s black and white photographs that earned him acclaim. His “Blind Vision” series of self-portraits that chronicled his emotional journey dealing with site loss has been exhibited at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In 2009, his work was included in the California Museum of Photography’s exhibition “Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists.”

Weston also did a series of touchable photographs for the Berkeley Art Museum, putting caulking around the outline of the image so that a blind person could touch and interact with it as they listened to an audio description.

“It was really cool because not only did blind people get to experience the work, but totally sighted people were closing their eyes and trying to experience it like a blind person.” he said.

Not content to just create art, Weston also helps other visually-impaired artists show theirs. In 2005, he co-founded Shared Visions, an annual year-long art show at the Southern California College of Optometry, across the street from CSUF.

“Kurt really helped us develop the direction for this event, which has made a difference to all the artists who have been in the exhibit,” Arlene Kaye, curator of Shared Visions said. “He has had a lot of challenges in his life and it’s very inspiring that he has overcome them in such a positive way.”

Weston’s work is on exhibit at the College of Optometry through August.

“Seasons in the Prayer Garden” runs at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center through March 28.