Blind photographer/musician offers rare view of life

NEW ORLEANS — Renowned blues pianist Henry Butler imagined a human knee as he put his hands against the knots of a tree limb in New Orleans' Audubon Park. Intrigued by the image he could visualize but could not see, the blind musician stepped back, pulled out the camera he's been carrying around for years, and snapped a photograph.

A blind man as photo artist? Now there's a novel concept — but not one to be dismissed out of hand, say some who can see just fine and have made their living dealing in art.

"It's amazing to me how he does what he does," says Jonathan Ferrara, whose downtown New Orleans gallery showcases an array of paintings and photographs. "It's very intuitive, and there's almost a surreal quality to it, I mean, a blind photographer?"

The two tree limbs were among the nearly three dozen Butler photos that made up an exhibit at Ferrara's gallery earlier this month called "How Eye See It." And from the angle and distance at which they were captured, some viewers saw a resemblance between the two tree limbs and human leg, one slightly bent at the knee.

"It defies reason that these photos would be good, but they are because there is a thought-out composition," Ferrara says. "There is an editing process that goes into it and a quality factor. The images are pretty good, and there's also the diversity: nature shots, people images, Mardi Gras-type images."

Butler has never really shown his work in any other gallery setting and it's only been reviewed by the local paper. Professional photographers are mixed about Butler's work, saying that while some shots are ridiculous, others are "actually pretty good." His work was exhibited at Ferrara's because of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival earlier this month, where Butler performed.

Butler at times gets help from a sighted assistant who assists him with matters such as aiming the camera as well as developing and editing the photos. But it's Butler who chooses the subjects, takes the actual pictures and makes editing decisions based on what the assistants say. He started with film but now primarily uses digital cameras.

And he doesn't really care what others think, even if he stands to gain a little extra cash from the photos, priced from $325 to $800.

"I didn't start doing this for anybody else, and I didn't start doing it to earn a living. My main thing is music," says Butler, who wears black wraparound glasses and a black felt, narrow-rimmed hat that do not obscure his wide, ebullient smile.