gup #013 - belgium

13

Guide to Unique Photography

e 5,- | $ 6,99 | £ 3,99

The Belgium issue

Contents

Cover imageEddy Merckx © Stephan Vanfleteren

08 New(s)Update yourself.

19 Book Review(s)GUP’s fine selection of international book publications.

26 Photo FileA short introduction to Belgium. A country full of melancholy.

28 Portfolio Stephan VanfleterenHis view at drastic changes and the breakdown of history.

41 Portfolio Toon MichielsInspired by the book ‘The roundabout route to Santiago’ Toon Michiels made a wonderful journey.

50 Collectors TipDirk Braeckman (Eeklo, Belgium, 1958) looks deep into the being of things.

53 Portfolio Sofie KnijffMeet the family. Sofie captured her family during the hunting season and in the attic.

64 InsideYoung collectors do not always take themselves seriously. They should.

66 Portfolio Carl De KeyzerLast year, Spanish immigrants won the right to vote. Magnum photographer Carl De Keyzer focused on the Chinese community in Madrid.

78 My SpaceSomething new. And all yours.

80 FlashbackLast November Dutch photographer Sofie van Dam visited the international show for 19th century modern photography - Paris Photo.

90 ToDoPhotographer Gregor Servais gives the old bromoilprinting method a go.

93 Portfolio Debby HuysmansWith ‘In a Valley’ Debby exposes a hidden community of pre-capitalist villages curved under the Carpathian hills.

102 BkmrksNine Belgian photographers to keep an eye on.

105 GUP Guide: Upcoming photography exhibitions Europe USA/Canada Asia/Australia

6 — 7

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NEW(s)

In a further judgment round, six finalists have been selected for the REAL Photography Award 2007: Julian Faulhaber (Ger), Abelardo Morell (US), Hans-Christian Schink (Ger), Livia Corona Velazquez (Mex), Thomas Weinberger (Ger) and Danwen Xing (Chi). The final winner will be announced on March 20, 2008, the opening day

of the award exhibition in Las Palmas, Rotterdam. The REAL Photography Award is a new and unique bi-annual photography award powered by ING Real Estate. It focuses on ‘Nature and Development and Architecture’. The winner receives 50.000 Euros in prize money. www.realphotographyaward.com

Six REAL finalists

© Abelardo Morell/REAL Photography Award

© Livia Corona Velazquez/REAL Photography Award© Julian Faulhaber/REAL Photography Award

16 — 17

NEW(s)

© Danwen Xing/REAL Photography Award

© Hans-Christian Schink/REAL Photography Award

© Thomas Weinberger/REAL Photography Award

GUP: Guide to Unique Photography

BOOKREVIEW(s)

224 pages

Hardcover

Various artists

English/Spanish/Italian

Damiani editore

ISBN 9788889431924

€ 50.00

Lima – PeruEdited by Mario Testino

Mario Testino: prolific photographer, no fixed abode. He flies around the world shooting photos from Milan to Rio de Janeiro, Paris to New York. His roots, however, lie in Lima, Peru. Having bypassed Lima on his flight itinerary during the last few decades, Mario suddenly felt a strong urge to re-connect with his hometown. For the past couple of years he has paid more frequent visits to the Peruvian capital and rediscovered ‘his’ city and the artists within its’ walls. This book is a colorful and diverse homage to his beloved city and its’ artists.

20 — 21

BOOKREVIEW(s)

176 pages

Hardcover

Mets & Schilt

ISBN 9789053305942

Trinityby Carl De Keyzer

Carl De Keyzer is a dedicated Magnum photographer. This dedication is clear to see in his new book ‘Trinity’. The first part of the trilogy deals with ‘power’ in general, depicting power during times of war and in the European Parliament and Capital Hill.

De Keyzer worked at least 10 years on the first volume. It is not yet known when parts two and three will be available but one thing is for sure, these books will be gems. Keep your eyes open!


26 — 27

History

Belgicum © Stephan Vanfleteren

Photo File

Terra IncognitaPhotography in

What is Belgium? You must answer this question first before you can talk about their photography. Because, what does a Dutch person know about their neighboring country anyway? How do the Belgians look at their fatherland, and does Belgian photography exist?

Text: Han Schoonhoven


To begin with the last question: Yes. In 2005, the Belgian publisher Ludion published ‘Belgian Photographers 1840-2005’ containing images from and descriptions of 160 photographers. The principal difference between Belgian and Dutch photography is the strong influence surrealism had, and still has in the contemporary photography, on our southern neighbors. This is completely in line with the fact that surrealism had a major influence on Belgian pain-ting and literature. In the Lowlands, surrealism was adopted by a few artists but never by a group or a movement. We can also uncover history in the Belgian company Gevaert, established in 1894 in Antwerp, and until recently a world brand in the photographic industry. Gevaert donated a part of their collection to the Fotomuseum Province Antwerp. Partly because of these donations the museum now has the lar-gest collection of photografica in Europe. Belgium already had two photo museums (also the Institute in Charleroi) long before the Dutch had something comparable.

A glance outsideIn spite of a rich (photographic) history Belgium struggles with her identity. Johan Swinnen (photo-graphy lecturer) in his article for the internet maga-zine Photoq about the exhibition and book ‘Belgicum’ (Stephan Vanfleteren) sees his country ‘evaporating’. Others observe the language barrier becoming more influential on the focus of the French and Dutch speaking Belgian photographers. These photo-graphers focus more frequently on the neighboring countries south and north of Belgium. A small country internationally orientated through necessity. This inter-national orientation, a sort of world citizenship if you like, could explain the Magnum membership of three Belgian photographers. Magnum is still one of the most influential photo agencies in the world. Two of the three Belgian members were awarded with possi-bly the most important prize for photojournalism, the W. Eugene Smith Award: John Vink in 1986 and Carl de Keyzer in 1990. Harry Gryaert, born in Antwerp and living in France, is also a member of Magnum, as

is the Antwerp photographer Martine Franck. After leaving Belgium at a young age Martine Franck trave-led halfway around the world, married Henry Cartier Bresson and adopted a French nationality.

Black-white My first in-depth acquaintance with Belgian photo-graphy took place in 1995 at an exhibition in ’Het Oog Van Hoorn’ (an exhibition space in a picturesque har-bour town in North Holland). I wrote an article about the series of Carl De Keyzer and Stephan Vanfleteren for the monthly magazine Foto. In an interview with De Keyzer he told me he was going to show colour photos for the first time. He had been avoiding this because he felt that colour images evoked a kind of ‘television reality’. On request of the organization De Keyzer invited a young, promising colleague. This was Vanfleteren, who shortly prior to that had published his first photos in the Belgian newspaper ‘De Morgen’ and whose exhibition ‘Belgicum’ had been extended for two months due to great public interest. It turned

out to be the most popular exhibition ever organized by the Antwerp Fotomuseum. The book has been reprinted twice since its’ first publication in 2007. All the attention for this project has been remarkable considering Vanfleterens’ rather personal vision of his country. The black and white pictures of his country-men and the Belgian landscape are rich in atmosp-here. In an optimistic mood, you could almost call them nostalgic. This photographer has a gift of being able to give the ever present ‘tristesse’ an association of a timeless bond. The images of Stephan Vanfleteren have deeply touched his countrymen. Maybe here the same com-ment that the photography critic Johan de Vos made about the series ‘Made in Belgium’ of Harry Gruyaert applies: ‘a monument for an impossible country that wants very much to be impossible’.

Fotomuseum Antwerp: www.fotomuseum.beFotomuseum Charleroi: www.museephoto.be

‘In spite of the rich (photographic) history Belgium struggles with its identity’

Text: Han SchoonhovenPortfolio Stephan Vanfleteren

Text: Han Schoonhoven

In his melancholic and lonely setting there is no place for the modern Belgian – the office worker who takes a holiday once a year, parties at the weekend and enjoys all the perks of Western prosperity. With mixed feelings, he looks at drastic changes and the breakdown of history. Must the new always be at the expense of the old? Belgicum is a nostal-gic observation of Vanfleterens’ motherland and as he himself says “a search for a lost identity of a 177 year old nation”.

Stephan Vanfleteren

BELGICUMAn examination of Belgium.


Kees Scherer (1920-1993) was born in the Amsterdam working-class

district called ‘de Jordaan’. Shortly after WWII, he began working as a

freelance photographer and reached the pinnacle of photojournalism

with high-profile reports about the flood disaster in the province of

Zeeland (1953) and the Hungarian uprising (1956). He initiated World

Press Photo in 1955 with Bram Wisman. In addition to his extensive work

in colour, Scherer’s early work in black/white has also been receiving

increasing attention in recent years. He depicted his favourite cities in

exhaustive detail, namely Amsterdam, Paris and New York. (JR)

30 — 31

Portfolio Stephan Vanfleteren

Inspired by Cees Nooteboom’s travel book ‘De Omweg naar Santiago’

(‘The roundabout route to Santiago’) Toon Michiels made a wonderful

journey. The Dutch photographer, working in Belgium traveled from

Den Bosch to Santiago de Compostela from 1996 to 2007. At times

with his bike, but mostly with his car he was continuously searching

for paranormal images of nature, small signs of culture and situations

with spiritual tones.

Portfolio Toon Michiels

44 — 45


46 — 47


A game of lines and patterns in tiled walls, windows, branches of trees, masonry, and variations in the landscape. The cracks in an oil painting or the stretch marks on a woman’s stomach. The rhythm of a staircase. The textures of a carpet, fabric, wall-paper. Dirk Braeckman (Eeklo, Belgium, 1958) looks deep into the being of things.

Braeckman cuts into time and space and offers us access to a closed world to which we attach meaning. He doesn’t attempt to give a weight to this meaning. He reduces and blows up the detail of the subject to become the main focus. The result is disquieting wit-hout becoming alienating. The underlying repetition and the balanced patterns give it this fine balance. It possesses purity, the purity of simplicity.

Braeckman approaches his subject so closely that the image becomes unavoidable, uneasy even. By keeping the images dark and grey or by printing the images out of focus, Braeckman eliminates the part of the information that could distract from the essence. By doing this he avoids the anecdotes and the recog-nisable, for him it is about the image itself and the recording of the space.

He investigates things that could easily go un-noticed, places that give the impression of being inhabited in some way, where time has passed or where people have been through a lot, although you can never be sure of anything. Harsh, direct flashlight bounces off the photographed subjects. The image in a painting is burnt out, returned to an irregular, refracted level. My glance recoils. It demands effort to look at the deeper meaning within the image. The photos deal with what cannot be portrayed. Braeckmans’ theme lies in the twilight zone between concealment and exposure.

Images of empty interiors, apparently photographed as an afterthought, are interchanged with images of female nudes. Just as much as they are close-up, the images are subtle and steer away from emphasising form and texture. By placing the nudes next to the interiors Braeckman gives life to the inanimate objects and thus shows us death in life. His work straddles the line between life and death.

The twilight is accentuated by the deep blacks and sombre greys in Braeckmans monochrome palette. These tints give the photographed subjects a barren quality and emphasize the desolation of the interiors and the female bodies. In spite of this barren quality, the photos are rich with nuance. Simultaneously refined and suggestive: you catch a glimpse of a personal story behind these big black and white, but prominently grey, photographs.

Zeno X GalleryLeopold De Waelplaats 16

B-2000 AntwerpBelgium

T: +32 321 616 26W: www.zeno-x.com

DIRK BRAECKMAN

Text: Pim Milo

50 — 51

Collectors Tip

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56 — 57

Portfolio Sofie Knijff

Portfolio Sofie Knijff

60 — 61

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64 — 65

Portfolio Carl De Keyzer

Madrid Inmigrante


72 — 73


74 — 75


Last November the Dutch photographer Sofie

van Dam visited The International show for

19th century modern photography - Paris

Photo. Paris Photo is one of the most prestigious

shows in the world with top international

photographers represented by 83 galeries

from 17 countries. In addition to looking at the

exhibited works, Sofie also looked to the future.

78 — 79

Flashback

The Polish Danni Mroz (28) studies photography at

Yale College of Wrexham in Wales. Upon completing her

studies she would like to continue to University to further

her learning and would like to become a promising

portrait photographer. Her favorite photographers at Paris

Photo are Maiko Haruki and Abbas Kiaostami.

Karen Gruszka (27) is an actress from Poland and in

Paris with a friend. Her friend takes her into the world

of photography. First they visited an exhibition at the

Pompidou, then Paris Photo and finally The Louvre.

84 — 85

Flashback

The Parisian Matthieu Rosier (23) studies photography at

Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris.

He thinks Paris Photo is the most important place in the

world to see photography and photographs. With his

second visit he is looking for inspiration for his exam project

‘Underground Parking’. He hopes that in a few years his

photos will also be shown at Paris Photo.

GUP Magazine concept & design

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9Guide to Unique Photography € 5

Issue 13

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The Belgium issue

‘Lounge Lizard’ Life As a Night Porter. © Chris Shaw. March/April at HUP Gallery Amsterdam

Tesselschadestraat 15 Amsterdam The Netherlandswww.hupgallery.comOpen: Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 12.00 - 17.00 h.or by appointment

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Guide to Unique Photography € 5

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© Jehsong Baak

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The Amsterdam issue

88 — 89

At the start of the 20th century, bromoil-printing (favoured by picturalists) provided an efficient way to manipulate the reality of a photo and to create painting-like results. Photographer Gregor Servais gives the old method a go. >>>

The bromoil technique

ToDo

94 — 95

Portfolio Debby Huysmans

96 — 97

Portfolio Debby Huysmans

An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar

Taryn Simon – Apr 6

Taryn Simon is one of two winners of the KLM Paul Huf Award.

Part of the prize is an opportunity to exhibit at Foam. Her

exhibition is about her vision on America’s peculiarities.

It is the second one in a series of two shown in Foam.

FOAM Keizersgracht 609

1017 DS Amsterdam

T: +31 20 551 65 00

www.foam.nl

Cryopreservation Unit, Cryonics Institute, Clinton Township, Michigan, 2007 © Taryn Simon

Wildlife Refuge and Foundation, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, 2007 © Taryn Simon

106 — 107

Reflex New Art GalleryWeteringschans 83

1017 RZ Amsterdam

T: +31 20 423 54 23

www.reflex-art.nl

Miles AldridgeApr 19 – May

Reflex Gallery has organized Miles Aldridge’s first worldwide show. Aldridge is an

established photographer and has worked for Vogue Italia Numéro, The New York

Times, i-D, Vogue Homme, and many others in recent years. For the most part he

has been able to evolve his own style. Fashion and art are closely knit in his work.

Showing now in Amsterdam.

"Immaculee #1" Colour photograph on Fuji Cristal Paper 2007 © Miles Aldridge

"Blooming" Colour photograph on Fuji Cristal Paper 2007 © Miles Aldridge

110 — 111

© David Seymour / Magnum Photos

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Post CS Oosterdokskade 5

1011 AD Amsterdam

T: +31 20 573 29 11

www.stedelijk.nl

Seven European photographers were chosen from 35 entrants by a

commission to show their work in the Melkweg Gallery. One of them was

recently awarded the Lex van Rossen award. This award was founded as

a tribute to the respected Dutch pop photographer Lex van Rossen, who

passed away in February of 2007. The photo competition of POPview first

came to light in Groningen and will now be shown in the Melkweg Gallery

in Amsterdam.

POPview– Mar 2

Melkweg Galerie Marnixstraat 409

Amsterdam

T: +31 20 531 81 18

www.melkweg.nl

60 years MAGNUM Photos– May 12

Up until now Magnum has been

responsible for a lot of pictures of

historic events that are still collectively

remembered. Stedelijk Museum

Amsterdam will show the work of 83 of

Magnums photographers, among them,

Henri Cartier Bresson, Martin Parr, Susan

Meiselas and Leonard Freed.

De OntmoetingFleur Koning

– Mar 24

‘The meeting’ is a photo and video project

where Fleur Koning had women in front

of her lens whom she admired or had

inspired her over the years. In the process

of taking the picture, the women had to

keep still for a long period of time. To make

them feel at ease, Koning held the hand of

each participant during the process. All

photos were taken with a pinhole camera

while filming at the same time.

Waterland Photo GalleryRoomeinde 13

1151 AL Broek in Waterland

T: +31 20 403 8734

www.waterlandphotogallery.com

© F

leur

Kon

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© F

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Kon

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gup #013 - belgium

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