Artist Interviews

Kurt Weston is the curator for the new Time Lines exhibition which opens tonight at Huntington Beach Art Center. I recently had the chance to speak with the international photographer to find out a bit more about the man, his life and the art he creates. This is the first of our Artist Council member interviews, where we discover, inspire and connect ourselves and our personal stories.

I couldn’t think of a more inspiring and powerful voice to begin with for our artist interviews than Mr Kurt Weston.

Text by Bonnie Lee Jamieson

 

Photographs courtesy of Mr Kurt Weston

 

 

A: As a legally blind photographer I have overcome the barriers, obstacles and challenges of producing and exhibiting my art. My limited visual acuity - total blindness in my left eye and limited peripheral vision, no central vision in my right eye – permits me to see the world like an impressionist painting. Through my art I experiment with enhanced photographic views and perspectives. I entered the field of contemporary visual art with extensive art education, a Bachelor’s of Art in Photography from Columbia College, Chicago (1985) and an MFA in Photography from Cal State Fullerton (2008)’ combined with fifteen years work experience as a professional fashion photographer.

My photographs have drawn much attention, spawning articles and art exhibitions. My work has been exhibited internationally and most notably Transformations (2006) and the Shift (2011), exhibitions at The Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington DC. Much of my work has become part of an international traveling exhibition entitled Sight Unseen which opened in 2009 at the California Museum of Photography and continues touring through 2016. My work has also been featured in numerous articles including The Los Angeles Times (2009); the New York Times (2009) Lens Blog and has been included in the text book “Re-framing Photography: Theory and Practice” published February 2011; I have been a featured artist in Better Photography Magazine, (2010 and 2015). I have also been the subject of two documentary video’s Obscura by Damon Stea and The Blind Imagination by Taylor Adam Swift. In (2010) I was the recipient of the Arts Orange County Outstanding Artist Achievement award and in (2012) appeared on national television, CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield show highlighting my photographs and advocacy. Collectors include The Houston Fine Arts Museum and the National AIDS museum, as well as many private collections.

 

A. Ever since I was young I was fascinated by the art of photography. I took the first photography class offered at my high school and had a darkroom at home. I continue to marvel at the beauty and power of a well composed and correctly exposed image and am constantly drawn too the amazing subject matter which exists in our world.

A. Life as it occurs in all it’s multiple manifestations, whether it be a person a flower an insect or a dog. Having nearly lost my life several times I respect all life dearly and hold life consciously.

 

A I use a number of camera’s. My go to cameras are Nikon’s but I also use Fuji, Sigma, Sony and Ricoh. Primarily, I use the camera which suits the type of situation I am shooting.

A. I would hope viewers of my work would think about the subject, whatever it may be, more deeply more profoundly. I think good art expands our ways of perceiving and thinking about our world. Sometimes art can be challenging and evocative and I believe this is a good thing.

A. I do not currently have an Instagram but plan on starting soon. I do think social media is a big help to artist who can now supersede the gatekeepers and be self promoting.

A As a person living with AIDS I face the prospect of a greatly reduced life span and deal with threat and decay daily. It has been a bitter battle just to stay in this world, so I am not about to flinch or look away. In this project I became fascinated with the concept of longevity and the process of aging. I began photographing senior citizens, capturing the lines on faces of lives long lived. I was privileged to work with fascinating individuals, who shared their life histories layered with a multiplicity of experience and emotion.

I was pleased when the idea came for Time Lines. The Huntington Beach Art Center's Executive Director, Kate Hoffman, immediately saw its critical potential and capacity to help our audience connect with art in ways which relate to their own experiences. After all, the image of the body can imply - desire, trauma, self-perception and deception, a consideration of its short time in the world - with which everyone has intimate knowledge. I am grateful to Kate for her unwavering enthusiasm, for her ongoing support, encouragement, and trust this exhibition is of value to our community.

A: The choice of artist was a collaborative effort. I knew several photographers such as Dan Meylor, Bridget Bourgon and Carolyn Yarnell who had a portfolio of images in this genre. Kate also had her cadre of artists and their works added even more dimension to the exhibition.

 

A: My desire for this exhibition was to re-contextualize the aging body as it is considered by Western culture. From childhood on, we’re barraged by messages indicating it is sad to be old; wrinkles are embarrassing and old people useless. Film, television, and advertising in our culture, have a profound effect on the way people view age. Commercial advertisements depict seniors as out of date and lacking knowledge about modern culture and new technologies. Late night comedians and talk show hosts joke about seniors and memory loss. Commercial media views age as a medical condition requiring cosmetic and pharmaceutical interventions as well as plastic surgery to circumvent the effects and appearance of age.

 

Aging is a natural, lifelong, powerful process, a part of the human condition. Today’s culture has not had time to catch-up to the newly obtained longevity acquired by our senior population which is a fairly recent phenomenon. We need to develop new ways of living in community and develop new roles for older people and capitalize on this unprecedented 15 years of productive healthy life in which older people are willing to contribute to communities and society. We also need to envision new artistic expressions which include acelebration of difference from the norm, specifically through displays of the body in all its transformations and transgressions as displayed in the Time Lines exhibition.

 

To find out more about Weston’s work please visit his website here http://www.kurtweston.com

Time Lines runs from April 30th to June 18th 2016 at Huntington Beach Art Center.