Religious photo show at House of Culture
His photographs documenting our people and places have been praised as both prolific and provocative, and tonight the artist that is Richard Holder lives up to his reputation as he unveils his latest exhibition. “X-posure Divine” is a collection of religious images reproduced in reverence and designed to evoke a sense of spirituality and humanity. According to Holder, a monastery in Merida filled with Christian iconography provided inspiration for the display, but it was his artistic appreciation for the historical depictions that moved him to explore the spiritual.
Richard Holder, Photographer
?When you are dealing with this topic there is a lot of different characters that I could have chosen from. I did the Virgin Mary because I had a vision for that image, of a closeness between her and her child that I wanted to give more of a human touch you know. And I was also interested in portraying these people in a little darker shade skin, like people who are around me, who live in the country, in Belize, in this region. These individuals are usually portrayed as fair-skinned and I no have a problem with that, but I think that perhaps people would relate to them a little bit more, in this area, in this poor country, if they were a little more like them. And the reason why I picked these specific women especially, just because I enjoyed the images and I thought they?d be interesting to recreate visually. Those specific images I liked. I liked Saint Lucia because she had the eyes. I read up on her story and I thought that I was really cool. That it would make a great picture, you know. And Saint Elena, I thought she?d be good because she had the cross and everything. She was the person who supposedly found the cross of Jesus, the real cross, on which he was crucified. So I really approached them more from a visual, also from the images being very interesting to me.?
?I?ve seen angels before portrayed with lots of drapery and sometimes in the nude, so I don?t think it is something shocking. Perhaps more, it could be more shocking, because it?s photographic and actual physical people, not a painting.?
The exhibition will be launched tonight at the House of Culture on Regent Street and will run until the middle of June. Copies of the photographs will be available for sale.
