Swiss born Pierre documents Bali's rural areas
Swiss born Pierre documents Bali's rural areas
By Intan Petersen
DENPASAR (JP): Pierre Poretti, a Swiss born photographer now living in Bali, is one of many who has fallen under the spell of Bali.
He has made the island his home and workplace since 1984. In the last ten years Pierre, who is an admirer of Felix Nadar, a photographer whom he deems as the patron of photographers, has documented Bali's rural areas, its performing arts and dances, its beaches and the various lifestyles of the people inhabiting the Island of the Gods in black and white.
Why is he so interested in black and white photography? Haven't people given up black and white photography?
"Through my black and white photographs, painted with transparent water colors, I can pour out my imagination and feelings onto the object of photograph, depending on my mood at the time as well as my aesthetical values," Pierre said. "This color application technique on black and white photographs was common in Europe and America when colored photographs were not yet invented. Before 1960, many people colored their black and white photographs according to their own taste," he explained.
Even after the invention of color photography this technique, now valued as art, is again popular in Europe and America.
The colors brushed onto the photographs can make it look antique. They also convey a different impression from a colored photograph of the same object.
"This technique gives people a strong impression of the photographed object," Pierre argued. "I can even create poems through these works."
Pierre does poeticize through his spellbinding photographs. His work entitled No Guest, shot when Jimbaran Beach was deserted, is of the sea, beach and empty chairs. Pierre beautifully colored the sand the golden yellow color of the rice paddy while maintaining the natural blue of the sea. The golden yellow of the paddy is calming and peaceful. It puts you under the artist's poetic spell.
However, the strength of Pierre's photography is not always due to the unnatural coloring of the object. He uses original colors in Little Brother which depicts a Balinese girl putting a flower behind her younger brother's ear as they depart for the temple to pray. Here Pierre has maintained the original whiteness of the destar (headdress worn during religious ceremonies). The white destar is the strength of the photograph while the other objects are colored transparently, like the girl's red dress. Most of his colored photographs have a peaceful nuance which calm the audience.
Pierre was born in Lugano and speaks English, German, Italian, French and Indonesian. He has proven from the start that he was not wrong in choosing Bali. His works are appreciated by many people and are in many collections.
"Money is not my main objective," Pierre assured when asked why his creations are not expensive.
He also spends his time as an ambassador for Bali through his exhibitions overseas. He had a solo exhibition in Switzerland in 1989 entitled Bali 84/88, and last month showed his works in New York. His painted photographs are also displayed in several five- star hotels in Bali, including the Grand Hyatt Bali and Bali Hyatt.
Pierre's love of Bali underlies his constant study of Balinese culture and has led to intimate interaction with other artists in Bali, like the painter Nyoman Gunarsa and Idanna Pucci, who is the Italian artist who restored the house of Walter Spies in Iseh, Karangasem.
Pierre Poretti's photographs dispel the visions of model Elle Macpherson posing in Balinese traditional dress, of topless female tourists sunning themselves on beaches regardless of local norms, and the pubs offering all types of nightlife. Pictures of farmers' children, of fishermen on the weekend and bicycles on the paddy field dikes convince us that the more Bali remains intact the more Bali will remain a paradise.