Photographic exhibition opens at Image Factory

It’s a form of art that requires a sharp eye, a steady hand and plenty of patience. And few Belizeans have mastered those requirements better than the subject of this next story.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

She may be camera shy, but this Maya woman from the Toledo District is just one of the many fascinating life size photos that will be on display at an exhibition by well known Belizean photographer, Richard Holder.

Richard Holder, Photographer

“When I saw her, immediately she is an older person and she has a lot of wrinkles, a lot of different things that I found visually interesting about her just looking at her you know. Besides her being just quiet and everything and enigmatic, running away from me, just to look at her was very interesting that compelled me to photograph her, because I think with the picture blown up big and illuminated, you can get very close to her much more so than you could have gotten closer to any of my subjects before in a previous show. So blowing her up this larger than life, you are in her presence now.”

And while that presence is immortalized in black and white, the real life antics of snake handler Reynaldo Smith adds a different hue to everyday life as seen through the lens of Holder’s camera.

Richard Holder

“I think what people will be surprised at is to see the many different people here that are on the streets, the diversity of the people we have who I have invited into the studio and shot. I think to see all these people will be overwhelming and it will be rewarding.”

Following the exhibition, the pieces will be taken down and shipped to Suriname where the photographs will be on display for a week as part of CARIFESTA eight. But this Friday and until the twenty-eighth, you have the opportunity to view the show, free of cost at the Image Factory on North Front Street.

Holder says the photographs are also for sale.