Bette Kaufman
Monroe, LA


The fierce wings of an Osprey carry away a large fish pulled from the waters of a nearby wetland. Osprey have adapted well to sharing their world with humans, thereby affording humans the opportunity to see the dynamic, symmetrical curve of wings and deadly arched talons against rigid, angular human encroachments.

I encounter the world through photography, striving to see and know the forms and spirit of things. I explore the glory & pathos, the heroism & hubris of humanity and our struggle to find and create meaning. One influence is Georgia O'Keeffe, who could draw a banana plant or paint a landscape pregnant with the human condition. Another is Margaret Bourke-White, who saw beauty in industry. Themes I'm interested in include Performance Art, Hard Hat Art, Earth Abstracts, Creature Encounter, Intimate Landscape, Architectural Abstracts. Framing is a foundational aesthetic and tool of the photographer. Imposing frames on reality profoundly disrupts reality, isolating, freezing, re-presenting a fragment of time and space, which humans by and large experience as continuous.

Whatever my subject—nature, industry, architecture—I use abstraction, framing and techniques like selective focus, color, and monochrome to transform telling details and fleeting insights into an invitation to viewers to see and know as well.