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For as long as I can remember, the camera has enticed me to explore the world through its lens. As a result, I have employed the camera to express my conscious or subconscious imaginings. Sometimes it is to share with others. At other times, it is to engage in a solitary and personal revelry in the moment, with work that might only be discovered upon my passing. An artist shows his strength and bravery the moment he allows an honest representation of his deepest impulses to emerge onto the medium. My honest expression tends to generate work which is subtle, and allows space for viewers to fill with their imaginations. |
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“The camera becomes an extension of my hand”
Mack Sturgis (Alter Ego of Richard Bettinger) Church and State, 2010. Digital, Nikon D3S print. Courtesy of the artist.
Richard Bettinger: Provocation or Shock?
Richard Bettinger
For as long as I can remember, the camera has enticed me to explore the world through its lens. As a result, I have employed the camera to express my conscious or subconscious imaginings. Sometimes it is to share with others. At other times, it is to engage in a solitary and personal revelry in the moment, with work that might only be discovered upon my passing. An artist shows his strength and bravery the moment he allows an honest representation of his deepest impulses to emerge onto the medium. My honest expression tends to generate work which is subtle, and allows space for viewers to fill with their imaginations.
During a shoot I experience a loss of self, a oneness with the light dancing on the subject, or with the light simply dancing on its own as the subject itself. It is this light source that conveys an energy which to me represents the essence of life. The camera becomes an extension of my hand, whether focusing on details or taking in the entire environment, moving toward that which is beyond the tenuous grasp of reality. The moment the shutter releases, what is captured becomes history.
By using a crafted combination of camera movement, shutter speed and lens manipulation, I am able to take a subject away from being ‘real’, or compressed, into something having the appearance of being de-contextualized and made free. In this way I have recorded movement with a still camera, making my subject appear as if it were echoing itself or being followed by its own history. These images complement my series of Essence portraits, which through movement and creative focus, capture the mood and spirit of the person before the camera – their essence.
This article was published by NY Arts Magazine, 2011. NY Arts Magazine is published by Abraham Lubelski. Sponsored by Broadway Gallery, NYC and World Art Media.
