Beauty in its many forms exists in nature. And there are countless ways to appreciate it. The mute mountains in the distance, a solitary cocnut palm in the rice feild, a river meandering through a valley, a yawning shore are but some of the images that offer inspiration to an artist. Nature, however, remains indifferent to its beauty. And it is this indifference that has so often been a source of inspiration for Swiss-born photographer Pierre Poretti, who until April this year had been living in Bali from 1982.

"There is an artistic nuance to Bali that differs vastly from that of the place of my birth," said Pierre Poretti at his home in Renon, Denpasar.

DIALOGUE AND FLEXIBILITY
Pierre Poretti spent much of his seventeen years in Bali capturing beauty of the island via the lens of his camera. Poretti's photographs turn mundane, mass-produced images of the island - Kuta Beach, Gunung Agung, ceremonial processions, dancers waiting in the wings for their turn to perform - into precious souvenirs that can be appreciated at any given moment. "My images are not images of 'dead' objects," says Poretti of his photographs, before going on tp qualify that passive or objectified beauty is of little interest to him as an artist. "There is life in my images because, for me, the photographic process is a dialogical process. I am the kind of photographer whose works depict a dialogue with the subjects of the photograph." In order to photograph a person, for example, this process would require Poretti to open a dialogue with that person, and if possible to begin a friendship with them. Or in order to photograph an aspect of daily life in a Balinese village community, he would need to become a part of that community in some small way. "I have lived in Bali for seventeen years, and I've experienced it all. I have learnt about Balinese religion and tradition, about they ways of rural communities and the ways of urban ones by mixing with Balinese people from all walks of life. This kind of participation has been of great help to me in developing my art," recounts Poretti.

Such is the secret of Poretti's art. To acquaint oneself with his work is to become aware of his gift for presenting mass-produced images in a shockingly new light, for transforming the cliche into a surprise, for sheding doubt on what has long been considered fact. Such gifts, it turns out, derive from Poretti's ability to open a conversation with the subjects of his photographs. The function of Poretti's lens, therefore, is not so much to record, but to mediate a dialogue between photgrapher and subject. By using his camera in this way, Poretti brings a sense of the living, the changing and the moving to his characteristically vibrant works.

top: Poretti in his Renon Studio, 1999

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