With tomorrow marking the 30 anniversary of the AIDS epidemic, CNN posted an interesting article about artist and photographer Kurt Weston's "Blind Vision" a series of stark self-potraits created with tinsel and foam meant to illustrate his feelings about losing his sight due to retinitis. Living with HIV since the early 80's, Weston was diagnosed with full-blown AIDS in 1991 after a bout of pneumocystis pneumonia, a common infection in AIDS patients. Cytomegalovirus retinitis, another known complication, took away his sight in 1993.
The former commerical fashion photographer decided to funnel his frustration into art. "You can see my hand gesturing as if I kind of want to wipe away the obstruction in front of my vision," he told CNN. "That was my way of wanting to illustrate the desire to get rid of that obstruction in my vision."
You kind of have to take a warrior mentality," he says of living with AIDS. "I'm not going to let these things beat me. I'm not going to let these things cheat me out of the life I want to have."
Read the full CNN article HERE, and view more of Weston's work below and at his official site.
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