Blind Photographer Dies

Michael Richard, blind photographer, 58
BY MARY ROURKE
LOS ANGELES TIMES

September 18, 2006
Michael Richard, a rock musician and amateur photographer who became legally blind four years ago but continued performing and taking photographs that he exhibited around the country, has died. He was 58.

Richard, a longtime resident of Los Angeles, died of cancer Aug. 28 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, his wife, Patrice Hughes, said.

A malignant tumor behind his right eye that was surgically removed in 2002 and a congenital eye condition left Richard able to see only gauzy shapes, "like the most extreme soft-focus photo you can imagine," he said in a 2003 interview with The Los Angeles Times.

With the help of his wife, who drove him to locations around the city, he went on taking pictures using a manual camera, adjusting the settings with the help of a magnifying glass. He also worked in the dark room and developed his own prints.

He was known for his black-and-white images of buildings, street vistas, outdoor sculpture and other urban sights shot at angles that turned them into tactile, abstract forms.

As a blind artist, he felt "driven" to help other disabled people "state their artistic case on their own terms and on a level playing field," he wrote in a recent statement about his work.

Richard adjusted to his condition with the help of a photography class he took at the Braille Institute in Los Angeles.

The class was taught by a professional magazine photographer who offered tips on what model of camera to use, places to have film developed and the like. Richard was inspired.

He began exhibiting his photographs at centers for the blind, optometry schools and art mu- seums. More recently he began exhibiting in shows at galleries.

"Michael was exemplary," said Christine Leahey, an advocate for artists with disabilities, this week. "He worked independently. He was an emerging artist whose work sold in mainstream exhibitions, which helped legitimize him in the world of high-end art photography."

Photography was Richard's second love, his wife said this week. He was a professional musician who played guitar and sang, with a compact disc, "Wires of the Acropolis" on Cool Records. He played guitar for television, videos and radio advertisements. He also played backup for performers including Little Richard and The Coasters.

Richard was born in Brooklyn and graduated from the City College of New York, where he studied music before he moved to California. His first marriage ended in divorce.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter from his first marriage, Jennifer Henry of Orange, Calif., and three grandchildren.