An ER nurse, paramedic, and photographer, Betsy J.
Gertz portrays reality. Her images reflect insight
acquired from years of dealing with people in crisis.
Gertz's bright, sunny studio in Maynard, MA is teeming
with life. She is a photographer, "Simply for joy.
There is no other motivation. I love this."
As she introduces me to some of her work her eyes
gleam with excitement. "In medicine we define level
of consciousness as the ability of one human being
to communicate with another. I want my work to communicate."
There is motion in her photographs. "Life is in motion
– there is always something going on. Stagnant
pictures aren't representative of life."
Gertz's photography has carried her to places like
Greece, Hungary, Mexico, Turkey, Italy, and Cuba. Her
subject matter is concentrated in three areas –
children, the elderly, and the terminally ill. "Both
the young and very old have an innocence and trust.
Distrust is an innate aspect of self-protection. It
is a learned behavior. Elders often lose their capacity
for distrust because they have less choice as they
become more dependent."
And Gertz strives to capture authentic expressions.
"If I have to ask you to smile, then there is something
not honest about our communication. Someone will smile
if they are happy. If someone is not smiling and I
have to ask them to smile, then there is a sense of
facade that I can see in the photograph." She shows
me a picture of a relative just before his 13th birthday.
The image leaps out at me and I can sense his palpable
joy. "I asked him if he had kissed a girl yet. Do you
see his head back in the rapture of a young man coming
of age? Now that is a smile."
Her photos of children are particularly striking.
I can't stop staring into to their eyes. They seem
to know something I don't. They are more alive than
I am. I stare and I stare at the stunning images, and
the longer I do, the more alive the pictures become,
as if they are looking at me. "Children are supposed
to be seen and not heard. But they have an overwhelming
need to communicate. Adults often want something from
you when you take their picture. Children don't want
anything. They just want to be seen, and I see them.
I pay attention."
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Article published on Dec 31
04 12:59AM.
Originally published in the
Spring 2003 issue of MedHunters Magazine.
