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Distinctive originality
Observing and experimenting like a painterWhen we are flooded by the daily stream of images through the media, we gradually become a bit mellow. The images that are thrown into our minds by television news, newspapers, glossy magazines, and social media have improved enormously in recent years and have therefore become increasingly penetrating. And that's what the media is all about; leave an impression in the viewer's subconscious. To frighten, put pressure on, or try to influence someone's opinion, that's what it's all about. But due to the enormous bombardment of similar images all around us, she hardly manages to do that anymore.
As a photographer, Richard Westerhuis is not so much concerned with the viewer, but rather goes his own way. He develops his own ideas about the medium of photography and how it could be used. To this end, he stages things, in which he does not shy away from experimentation. Actually like a painter looks and searches. That is why Westerhuis's photos are on the viewer's retina. Their originality is so distinctive that they evoke all kinds of feelings in us: surprise, admiration, affection and tenderness.
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Is this the Poem I Promised You?
New Series 2021Photographer Richard Westerhuis is clearly going his own way, focusing his attention on humans. Although people are not visible in his new series 'Is This The Poem I Promised You?', it’s just like in his portraits: ‘what you see is what you get’. Everything is produced in front of his camera and not afterwards with the help of a computer program. His fascination with light and colour is not at all different from the Dutch Masters: in his work he experiments with pure light and the addition of coloured light. In This is the Poem, people cannot be seen. Clearly there is a scene that suddenly seems deserted, with the result that all the objects eventually disappear as well. With this you could see the fragility of man. First man disappears, then eventually his earthly belongings as well.
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Previous Series
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Colorful People
In the Colorful People series, Richard Westerhuis experiments with colored light in different colours. The color determines the mood of the photo. Can we look beyond color? -
Powerful Fragility
In Powerful Fragility Richard Westerhuis did not place his models in graceful poses; he let them choose a pose in which they feel safe and secure. An attitude that felt natural to them, but which at the same time also looks powerful and vulnerable. -
Through the second skin
In Through The Second Skin Richard Westerhuis makes painfully clear how much we need to shield ourselves in order to escape the bombardment of information in our society in order to stay with ourselves. -
Back Buttocks Stool
Back Buttocks Stool is a crossing of traditional ideas about portrait photography, because the face is missing. The series also raises questions about vulnerability. -
Rubber Identity
In Rubber Identity, the models' hair is covered with a vintage bathing cap: a relic from a bygone era with flowers and studs. A time when progress and social liberation clashed with the demands of conformed behavior, strict social norms and tradition. -
Whanganui
In Whanganui Westerhuis investigates the vulnerable relationship between man and nature. Despite the fact that we desperately need the water for our survival, seas and rivers are becoming more and more polluted by human behavior. -
Perpetual Stillness
In this series Richard Westerhuis explores the boundaries between traditional portraiture and contemporary portrait photography. The portraits are made in the traditional Dutch tradition, but with an original contemporary twist.
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