ARTWORK DESCRIPTION
This photo belongs to my series “Losing our minds” and was taken at the beginning of the corona crisis 2020: a bizarre, but extremely fascinating period. Man loses his mind because a stormy situation presents itself that is new and challenging for him. Fear tries to overpower him, he freezes, starts to reflect on the world and on the punishment that Mother Nature seems to send us. We have treated our Mother Earth too lightly, demanded too much of her in our egoism. Reflection is necessary.
I want this poetic-philosophical reflection to speak through my images in these corona times. In my series “Losing our minds” I consciously show only young people who are looking for themselves, for the meaning of life and the relationship between man and nature. It is sometimes difficult to draw the line between realism and surrealism, between reality and madness. Are those figures real or staged in my photos? Sometimes we as a layman have the same reaction: is this the real world in which we live or is this madness / surrealism? These are photos of ultra-Orthodox Jews who can enjoy their freedom in an unorthodox way in the storm (of their lives) and escape the lockdown.
My images however try to transcend the anecdotal and in that sense they not only reflect what is going on with the corona crisis in 2020, but they try to be a universal expression. They could take place anywhere in the world and not just on the Belgian coast where these photos were taken in one day and within one hour. The young people in my photos are of course a symbol of change / revolution / going against the tide. They symbolize spring that starts anew every year. Within these young people you see in my images “Einzelgänger”, those who only try to compete against society. Some idealists throw themselves completely and don’t care about anything. Their slogan is straightforward. More than ever we realize through this crisis that man is a social animal and it is difficult to stay in his room. In group we are strong, we go for it and we climb the highest mountains. In this case: dunes of course.
BIOGRAPHY
Literary photographer. Visual storyteller. Pure and poetic. Misty Mysterious. Attention to detail. There’s a lot between light and shadow. Sometimes balancing between realism and surrealism, often spiced with a touch of humor. Homo ludens Not staged but spontaneous photos. Always focused on the decisive moment. I shoot with my soul, not with my camera. Please don’t put me in a box.
Belgian photographer. Diploma from the Leuven CVO in 2015. Studies in literature, philosophy and arts at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i.B. (Germany).
2015-2021: exhibitions in different galleries or special locations (solo or with other photographers, painters, poets, sculptors, singers, video artists, mixed media artists ...) in the USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Austria, France, The Netherlands and Belgium.
Photobooks published: ”No time to Verloes” (2015), ”Cuba libre” (2016), ”Zeezuchten” (2020), ”Buiten zinnen/Losing Our MInds”(2021)
Nominee @ LensCulture Visual Storytelling Awards 2019 ,
Most important awards in 2020:
Finalist Passepartout Photography Prize 2020 (Italy) - exhibition @ Piazza di Pietra Gallery (Rome) - January 2021
Selected as one of the best contemporary photographers worldwide by the American site All-About-Photo
Winner Life Framer Photo Contest 2020 (Theme: ”Civilization”) judged by Tate Modern’s Curator of International Art & Photography Emma Lewis
Selected for the Life Framer Collection
Travel Photographer of the Year 2020 - Beste Single Image (”People of the world”) - Over 25000 images were submitted from more than 140 countries
Finalist Siena Internationalist Photo Awards 2021