Is this the Poem I Promised You?

In his enigmatic photo series 'Is This The Poem I Promised You?', Dutch photographer Richard Westerhuis (1965) subtly portrays the concept of domesticity. Using dozens of sets and props, he recreates rooms in which something remarkable seems to have happened. The characters from the story have disappeared, but what they have left behind speaks volumes and stimulates our imagination. In every photo of such a recreated room, the light is slightly different and there are new props to be seen. They raise many questions: Who were the inhabitants of this house? Why did they suddenly leave? Did something bad happen? Or is there another, much simpler explanation for why the rooms look so cluttered and empty? By using the light in a very targeted way and working with special color filters, Westerhuis always creates a different universe with its own atmosphere. In doing so, he shows us what it means to have a home base: the only place where you can be yourself. Westerhuis' recent series of photos is inspired by the study La poétique de l'espace by the French philosopher and writer Gaston Bachelard (1957), who discusses the imagination surrounding space and domesticity. Everything is produced in front of the camera and not afterwards with the help of a computer program. His fascination with light and colour is not at all different from the Dutch Masters: experimenting with pure light and the addition of coloured light. The creation of this special series was a search for the ideal color palette. In the style of the old masters of painting, Richard created a unique palette of 47 colors chosen from 400 different color filters. This palette in combination with the completely handmade decors results in unique compositions. Pure manual work without digital post-processing, just like the old masters of painting.