Press Release
For immediate release
Montreal's artistic photographer, Hera Bell, opens her first solo exhibit entitled "Internal Monologues," at 4710 St. Ambroise, Suite #238, Montreal, Quebec. The exhibit will be open to the public from September 17 to October 19, 2001.
(Montreal, August 29th, 2001) While not yet a common name, Hera Bell's portraits and photos are published in art books and specialized magazines with exclusive distribution in North America and abroad. She is one of Canada's most promising talents in the new genre of sensual photography. Published in several countries, her work reveals an extraordinary artistic sense, one that has already won recognition worldwide.
Hera's style is unique. As are her subjects. She shies away from photographing traditional models, classic beauties, and perfectly symmetric faces. Instead, Hera looks for beauty in emotion, a beauty that she is able to capture in women, men and occasionally –during a traditional photo shoot – even in children. "I like working with subjects who reveal something of themselves, who express an emotion. Nonetheless, my camera goes wherever I do, because I know that I could come across an interesting subject or place to photograph when I least expect it, and sometimes those are my best photos."
"Internal Monologues" is a small collection of her work that depicts her own essence while she captures the beauty of the moment, be it a still life, landscape or person. As a lens, she herself views, and is viewed. Captures, and is captured. Creates, and re-creates herself. Each piece stands on its own, with its own story and emotions to tell, yet is but a facet of a much larger piece which is Hera Bell.
"Internal Monologues" is her first solo exhibit, but will certainly not be her last. It will be open to the public Monday to Friday from noon to 5 pm, and visitations can be arranged by appointment on Saturdays. The exhibit runs from September 17th to October 19th, at 4710 St. Ambroise, Suite # 238, Montreal. (514) 574-2459.
Contact Information: Hera Bell
Telephone # (514) 574-2449
E-Mail: photopromo@yahoo.com
Web Site: www.herabell.net
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Sensual photographer puts on show
MIKE BOONE
Montreal Gazette
Wednesday, September 19, 2001
Hera Bell describes what she does as therapy, and I can testify to its benefits.
I felt immensely better after an hour with Bell yesterday. And unlike most of her clients, I kept my clothes on.
Bell is a photographer whose work explores "a fresh vision of sensuality." I had planned to attend a vernissage for Bell's first solo exhibit. But then the world changed.
A week after the terrorist attacks, I needed a break from body counts and geopolitics. Bell invited me to drop by her studio, which is on the second floor of what used to be an industrial building at the corner of St. Ambroise and de Courcelle Sts.
A visit to St. Henri is not what most doctors would prescribe to bring you out of a terrorism-induced, post-traumatic funk. But Bell's place is a bright, airy oasis of calm, its soothing effect accentuated by cream-coloured walls, cozy furnishings and Vivaldi playing softly on a small stereo.
There are 20 prints on display in a show Bell calls Internal Monologues. They range from the vibrant colours of autumn in Oka Park to a weed-choked rural mausoleum to a young couple in black-and-white embrace to a sepia-toned nude. The smallest photo is a 5x7 that Bell took "with a stupid little $40 Web cam."
"Can you guess what it is?" she asked.
Tapping into synaptic connections forged during tender adolescence, I responded that the fuzzy-focused flesh was someone's cleavage.
"Can you guess whose?"
Stumped. The breasts on display are Hera Bell's. And, she added with a chuckle, if you turn the photo upside down it looks like a bum crack.
This good-humoured exchange came at the end of our conversation. By then I had been completely charmed by Hera Bell - and convinced that there just might be therapeutic benefits in posing for a portrait photographer whose reputation has spread through word of mouth and the Internet.
"I'm listed in Yahoo Clubs under the category of Photographers - Erotica," Bell said. "And because of my name, I'm near the top of the alphabetical list. The club gets about 1,000 hits a day."
She also has a Web site,
www.herabell.net, that features samples of her work. I wondered whether nude photos on the Net were a magnet for weirdos.
"I can usually screen them out when they phone," Bell said. "I had someone who wanted me to photograph him while he was ejaculating. I said I don't do that type of photography."
What she does, for $400 a session, is art - preceded by a chat over coffee.
"I get to hear what's on their mind and establish a comfort zone," Bell said. "I see where the client's head is at."
The gentle probing continues while Bell applies makeup to her subject. As they're being beautified, people tell Bell their life stories and reveal aspects of their psyches.
The revelatory process helps people relax. It melts any trepidation they might feel about posing in little or no clothing.
Bell said her oldest client was 80. Her heaviest weighed 320 pounds. Both were women.
"The men are a different breed," she said. "They tend to be middle-aged and extra fit. They're proud of their bodies and want to immortalize their physiques on a photographic negative."
The cost of a session limits Bell's female clientele to career women or the wives of the wealthy. The age range is late 20s to mid-50s.
The latter group, Bell said, are women who are "aging but still look good." They want her camera to capture "a body that's changing."
Bell, who's 41, was born in Istanbul to Armenian parents. She came to Montreal in 1978 to study fashion and embarked on a career that has taken her around the world as a stylist and designer.
Bell became interested in photography four years ago when she and her husband took classes at the Saidye Bronfman Centre. He went back to his day job as a doctor; she embarked on a new career: making people look good and feel better.
"For me, there are no ugly individuals," Bell said. "I know how to photograph what's best about them. The people who pose for me are not perfect, but they all look glorious."
- Hera Bell's photo exhibit , open weekdays from noon to 5 p.m., continues until Oct. 17
at 4710 St. Ambroise St., Suite 238. There is more information at her Web site, www.herabell.net.
- Mike Boone can be reached by phone at (514) 987-2569 or by E-mail at mboone@thegazette.southam.ca.
© Copyright 2001 Montreal Gazette
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Bell shoots for the heart
Erotic photos of everyman/woman evoke and provoke sensuality
VICTOR SWOBODA
Montreal Gazette
Saturday, September 22, 2001
An unmistakable fashion sense informs the erotic photos of Hera Bell at the new gallery bearing her name. The fashion props might be a long black leather glove or a beautiful woman's flowing blond tresses, but Bell, who worked in the fashion industry before taking up photography, avoids the commercial fashion look by capturing spontaneity as well as creating a potent illusion of eroticism - the sense that the subjects are posing unobserved. Remarkably, her highly attractive subjects are non-professionals.
The reclining pose of the woman in Bold and Beautiful, along with her mysteriously inviting, self-assured stare toward the camera, has the erotically iconographic quality of Manet's Olympia. Photographed in black and white, the image was later re-shot with a strip of lens cloth on top, which produced a warm tint - an additional erotic charge. Like all of the exhibition's photos, the image was later transferred to canvas, which again distinguishes it from the glossy nudes of the Playboy/Playgirl variety.
The pure nudes - a woman's torso in Le Survol, an embracing couple in Eternity - glorify gorgeous body lines to be sure, yet the images rise above narcissism thanks to an element of drama. These are not self-contained beings but people caught up in things outside themselves. Other nude shots have an obvious traditional symbolism, like the orchid that covers Adam or the flower-patterned veil that requests reverence for Eve's quiet nakedness.
In utter contrast are Bell's nature scenes, some of which have an easy, pretty appeal (like Blue Serenity and Fall in Montreal - the colours have an enjoyable soft sheen) without the kind of tension that compels repeated looks. But Bell's picture of an abandoned fishing boat, The Past in its Presence, shot through a softening filter, starts to play with surface tensions - the receding perspective labours against the canvas's flat plane.
Bell can also see visual wonder in banality, like the shot taken aboard a St. Lawrence River ferry. Towards Tadoussac is a marvellous graphic and colour composition involving a white rope dangling against vertical pipes and horizontal slats. Colours and textures contrast and mix - sexual embraces at their most abstract.
- Internal Monologues, at Hera Bell Gallery, 4710 St. Ambroise St., Room 238, until Oct. 19. Gallery hours: Monday to Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays, by appointment. Call (514) 574-2459. Web site: www.herabell.net.
© Copyright 2001 Montreal Gazette
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INTERNAL MONOLOGUES
I was recently sitting at a street-side café on St. Denis with a friend. Everyone seemed to be somewhat on edge – probably due to the relentless heat wave that had hit the city. As we silently gazed out at the people making their way down the sidewalk, two beautiful women passed by. I paid no real attention to them, yet their existence somehow registered in my subconscious and I started to talk about dreams and desires.
Our conversation led to the topic of voyeurism and, the more we discussed, the more my companion insisted that I, as a photographer – especially a photographer who does nudes – was a voyeur.
Thus began my internal monologues…
Was I truly a voyeur? I was not convinced. I had always been an exhibitionist – I liked being part of the act, not a mere spectator. Have I changed? No. Never… I thought to myself. I am definitely an exhibitionist, and an exhibitionist I will remain.
Besides, as someone who creates, I want my work to be seen. Plus, I cater to the needs of the voyeur – the viewer – someone who is looking for insights into the subject being viewed. So in my mind, it is quite obvious that I am an exhibitionist. After all, the existence of one is dependent on the existence of the other.
And then it struck me: that very duality exists within me as a photographer.
When I photograph people, I try to shed my exhibitionist side (so does that not automatically put me in the position of a voyeur?). I try to reach into their psyche, which is a pure act of brining their inner-most selves out to their exterior-most selves. Then, and only then, will I click the shutter to immortalize the moment on a tiny, fragile negative.
Most of the people I photograph have never posed in front a camera before. And yet they look so perfect, relaxed, as they take a personal journey of discovery. Discovery of their own exhibitionism, often through nude photography. And I am the witness. The voyeur.
Nudity and Exhibitionism/Voyeurism
With nude photography, it would seem only natural that I contemplate exhibitionism and voyeurism. However, let it be clear that nudity for me goes far beyond the notion of sex. During a photo session, a spiritual intimacy – or complicity – develops between me and the people in front of the lens. Taboos come down when they shed their clothes, they let themselves go and reveal a deeper, more truthful side. And that is what my camera sees.
In sharing with you what I capture on film, the insights I gain as a voyeur, I become the exhibitionist. I expose myself to your interpretations of my work as you look for insights into the subjects and even into me. So you become the voyeur...
And I reconcile the duality of my own exhibitionism and voyeurism.
I hope you enjoy exploring my visual world through these images. Each one has its own spirit and story to tell. Hopefully it will make you dream and perhaps even prompt you to write your own tale, your own interpretation of what you see in each one.
Hera S. Bell (August 2001) Text edited by Kate Hubley
All Rights Reserved
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