“Licht en Liefde” (Light and Love) it says over the entrance of the house on the place where it would normally say “Well-Situated” or “Never Thought” (Classic Dutch names of house.). Only, the house of light and love which Betsy Green (1962) photographed, is a ruin, one big mess. Deserted and bored are all of her so-called pinhole photographs, scenes which have been recorded through a pin-hole, they give the viewer the idea of looking through a key hole, peeping into a universe of boredom and doubt. A successful example of this convincing debut is the picture of a woman in a unitard, laying lazily on an Ikea-couch: Again another day and how am I going to get through it? Have another drink!  These scenes are in the best tradition of the sensitively hurt pictures of Cindy Sherman, but without the rough lampoon-like tone of Lidwien van de Ven.

Copyright Betsy Green 2024