A bright, high contrast, compact, large area, high-resolution light modulator uses a field emitter array (FEA) to address a charge controlled mirror (CCM). The FEA deposits a charge pattern onto the CCM, which in turn produces electrostatic forces that deflect the micromirrors in accordance with the amount of accumulated charge. The CCM that is used in combination with the FEA can be configured in many different ways to implement different actuation modes, e.g. attractive, repulsive, grid-actuated or membrane-actuated and different charge control modes, e.g. RC decay, RC sustain and charge control.