Michael Richard
Studio City, United States
In Memoriam:
Michael Richard was born with amblyopia, an uncorrectable "lazy" left eye. In 2002 he
was diagnosed with rare choroidal melanoma, in his good eye. The resulting surgery
left Michael legally blind.
Following the operation, Michael learned of a class in photography which was being given
for blind photographers by Jack Birns, a former Life photographer who was gradually
losing his sight. Birns' class changed Michael's life.
With only 10% vision in his left eye, photography which always had been his second
artistic interest, after his music, took over front and center, as a major influence
and creative outlet. At first, Michael used disposable cameras, because fiddling with
the camera dials proved too difficult. After reading George Covington's "Let Your
Camera Do the Seeing", a manual of photography for the blind, Michael began using his
manual camera again.
It was Roger Marshultz, who gave him an auto-focus camera and suggested he shoot in
color. The auto-focus camera liberated him from having to focus in advance. Michael
found color to be exciting, though he preferred black and white.
To Michael people and crowds were a blur, so he concentrated on form, which was often
quite abstract. His typical photo shoot started with him deciding on a four block area
of the city. He was dropped off there with his camera. Unable to move about freely on
his own, imposed a strict discipline; he had to find subject matter within that
predetermined area.
No matter "how empty" the area appeared at first, Michael remained unfazed. He just
kept on working, thinking, and analyzing what his perceptions brought to him, until
he found the potential images. On a good day he'd shoot for several hours in one area
and then get dropped off in another where he'd repeat the process again.
Michael liked to experiment with angles and distances, looking for "totemic images and
iconic scenes." As he explained it, he "constructed" photographs, carefully analyzing
what he saw with the limited vision that he had left, all the while, depending strongly
on inspiration. Michael would change perspectives, by sampling the scene from varying
positions, like lying on the floor, or climbing a staircase. He’d try anything that
promised to yield a good image.
For Michael it was the creative act that took preference. "I can only control the subject
matter to a point, but then I have to let go and follow my instincts, letting the subject
dictate how I take the picture."
Sadly, the cancer that caused Michael's blindness returned and he recently passed away.
Excerpt from an article in Rangefinder, by Martin Elkort.
