- statement
- I meet people, so I create an image of my relationship with them. The relationship develops out of visiting places, meeting people or finding an object. I impute a reaction on those happenings and approach people, objects and spaces equal. A portrait is so transient that there are strong resemblances with still-lifes, landscapes or interiors; a portrait even can become a still-life, landscape or Interior - this process works vice-versa. By suppressing the personality of the portrait there is a fragile moment with them. Once something is fragile I use that moment to create a strange relationship with them, thus things become uncanny. The placement of those beings deploys a sub-reality; what I would call a “fictive documentary”, in which the viewer is tempted to search for the identity or, so to speak, the soul of the photographed/portrait. The approach of identity in regards to the portrayed is completely misplaced. It’s about the moment with them, it is not about them.
- For the project “Identification of Estonia”, during an exchange project in 2006, I impute a cultural development of a country that was in the midst of an identity revolution. The Estonian history is one of occupations by different countries. Mainly Soviet communism had an influence on the Estonian national identity. At the time of my visit the country's culture was transforming itself to the modern capitalist way of life. For a lot of photographers the form of the former communist countries was/is a utopic place, in which documentaries can be created. As a reaction to the situation of Estonia at that moment and the state of photographic documentary on Eastern Europe, I placed non-Estonians in an Estonian atmosphere. The feeling I picked up during my 6 months visit, was one of a misplaced and uncanny culture and national Identity. This feeling I explored and turned into a visual paradox between capitalism and communism and the photographic approach, which comes with this cultural movement.
- In “van Leentstraat”, 2008-2010, the relation of being photographed and the photographer is visualized. This street in Antwerp is a starting point of a documentary about experiencing people. The creation and ending of relationships is the most essential moment of a documentary. Exploring this topic is crucial; the knowledge of the subject will define the involvement and therefore the commitment of the photographer. The essence in “van Leentstraat” is to become the documentary. Not to create an inside view in someone’s life, living as a single guy, in an apartment close to the centre of Antwerp. It’s placing people, giving a meaning in someone’s visual existence. Not the relationship with the portrayed, but with the viewer will give tension. This tension with the viewer makes connection with the uncanny reality; a reality that does not exist and makes the documentary literary: a fictive documentary, a registration of people who are not allowed to be themselves.
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