Portrait exhibit features familiar faces
Helen Bunting-Hart’s photography exhibit “Flea Market Portraits” at the Butler Art Center will focus on the extraordinary in the ordinary from June 15 to July 6.
Bunting-Hart, a Butler resident originally from Pittsburgh, began photography at 16 years old.
“When I was quite young, I went to art classes on Saturdays at the Carnegie Museum,” she said. “They taught a mantra I remember, ‘To look, to see, to remember, to understand.’ I’ve always thought about that. I’ve been in love with the perspective a camera gives me on the world.”
Now retired, she decided to delve into the realm of street photography, with her own twist.
“I’ve always had an interest in street photography. I learned about it from a friend of mine, who when passersby would come, he’d ask if he could take their picture,” she said. “I wanted to do a variation on that. Engaging in art between the subject and the photographer, that’s of great interest to me.”
Given her shy nature, Bunting-Hart said she decided to take portraits in a place familiar to her.
“I frequent the Butler Flea Market, and I think the vendors are both extraordinary in the ordinary. I asked one person I knew if it’d be OK if I took their portrait,” she said.
Over the course of 2021, she collected more than 80 black-and-white photos of subjects in the market.
“The photographs are poetical and lyrical truth. I wanted to photograph the mark they’ve made on the world,” she said. “I owe a debt to them, really.”
Forty-seven of the portraits will be on display in the Butler Art Center gallery. A slide show of the remaining portraits will give attendees a chance to view the full scope of the project.
Bunting-Hart said portraiture is her medium of choice because of the one-on-one interaction she has with her subjects.
“I love portraiture because when I engage with people, I want to photograph something most people don’t see at first glance,” she said. “I feel passionate and emotional about things I see in the world and the people at the flea market have become dear to me.”
“Flea Market Faces” opens at noon June 15 at the Butler Art Center, 344 S Main St., and runs during gallery hours until July 6. An opening public reception with Bunting-Hart will be from 6 to 8 p.m. June 18 in the gallery.
For more information, visit butlerartcenter.org.
