Bethany de Forest

Artist Bethany de Forest lives and works in Amsterdam. Her artwork consists of pinhole photography and video art. During her artistic education she began to experiment with diorama’s which she photographed.

Her art show a realistic, yet somewhat absurdist world. In the world of Bethany it seems like everything is life size and that it’s a place one can actually visit.

Her inspiration comes from objects that appeal to her, materials she finds and landscapes she visited while traveling. The final photographs often look like a world that is far away from ours. There is an adventurous element in the image, something mysterious…

The materials Bethany uses are very ordinary. She uses candles to build an ice palace and colored candy to create a dollhouse. A close up causes strange discoveries; the daily elements she uses in her artworks are hardly recognized in these strange worlds.

The pinhole camera is one of the oldest camera’s in history. The first designs date from the 16th century. The system consists of a box, with a hole which is less than a millimeter big. Through that hole enters light, so there is no use of a lens. This technique provides infinite depth in a picture. Besides that it allows a photographer to make extreme wide angle shots.

Not only this special and historical photography method, but also the mysterious worlds she shows us, makes the artworks of Bethany fascinating and worth to admire!