retirement

work in progress

theme park

This project is a study about what happens when ‘amusement’ is stripped from ‘park’, visualizing the thin line in terms of persons and objects between the perceived role and the actual being, between the artificial and constructed reality.

universitas magistrorum

A university acts as a means of communication between its teachers and its students. Without teachers and students, the university loses its intended function. A minority of survivors remains on site and gracefully stands in its nonverbal communication.

DDR heritage

work in progress

my essentials

A famous photographer once said: “I have tons of pictures of world-famous persons, but in the end the only thing I regret is not having any picture of my mother.” Based on the memory of the first part of my live, living with my beloved parents, I tried to visualize the feelings I had back then. What did I forget already, what are the essentials when all others have long gone. Photographed with my old p&s camera.

pornomoregraphy

We used to speak about BC – being Before Christ. Today we can also speak about BI – Before the Internet. These images clearly date from this BI age. They portray an ancient film studio used for filming pornographic movies. Analog film pictured by a digital camera – oh irony.

Marten

Marten is a young singer-songwriter but above all a great performer. These pictures are used for his new tour & corresponding website.

the cure

Sometimes there’s no cure and the disease has reached its point of no return. Only seldom the cure itself has reached that point.

closed down

A story in color.

A selection of places I have visited over the years. Most of them no longer exist. Closed down & forgotten.

play no more

Normally a place like this should be filled with noise; children’s noise. Children playing & wearing colorful clothing. Only washed away colors remain today. Once invisible steel, now showing its real color; a color of decay. It’s hard to believe that nature only needs a couple of years to set in again, for good.

Welcome to the park. Play - no more.

concessions

A visual examination of human attitudes toward death. Concession à perpétué: an un-ending obligation. In past times, this phrase could be found inscribed on graves in countries such as Belgium & France. These inscriptions indicated how the individual actually lived, how his or her death was perceived, and how he or she was remembered. This photographic essay is based on a two year exploration of Belgian graveyards, in search of our connection to what has been. In it I confront with my own life; the love of those left behind; the lonely feeling of being powerless; the realization of all yet to pass ...

school's out

What remains.

What we have learned. Only blackboard souvenirs to remind us, without any place to sit down and absorb. No more lecture, no more reason.

School’s out.

Verdun

World War I, 1914-1918. Nearly a century ago, the First World War was fought. Verdun, a small community in the north of France, played a very important role. Only monuments and graveyards are left to remind us of these terrible human sacrifices. The graveyards of the allied forces are mostly large and well kept, replete with white crosses. In contrast with the German graveyards, which tend to be rather small and mark the graves of the fallen with black crosses. These pictures were taken on a snowy morning, in a small German graveyard against the slope of one hill, close to the famous Douaumont ossuary.

impressions

Stories of every day life. However seen from a specific angle, the every day life becomes an out of the ordinary life. Abstract solitude I would call it. Then again that's also just an impression.

S.A.F.E.A.

Société Anonyme de Fabrication des Engrais Azotés began life as a fertilizer factory in the south of Belgium, founded in 1929 by Usines Gustave Boël Half a century later, in 1978, the factory was closed and nearly 30 years later, in 2006, the factory site was cleansed and the buildings removed. This project visualizes the beauty of a heavily polluted factory. Years of silence have allowed nature to cover the mammoth floors with a wide-spread carpet of green. Writing everywhere - on notice boards, in books and ledgers and on small personal cards - reinforce the strong perception of the immediacy of workers who left the floor so many years ago.

closed down II

A story in monochrome.

A selection of places I have visited over the years. Most of them no longer exist. Closed down & forgotten.

concessions II

Ars longa, vita brevis: art is long, life is short. Man tries to lengthen his life through tangible grave ornaments, which refer to human life. A homage to life. Natura potentior arte: nature is more powerful than art. Life does not last forever either. It is only a matter of time before nature takes back what belonged to her in the first place. Our graveyards, fully booked, have given in and are buried themselves by nature. Memento Mori: consider that also you must die. How do we go about with our beloved ones? Our turn, which is still to come, from decay to be decayed, from forget to be forgotten.

into the clown

A one-on-one with a man you would otherwise not notice should he walk down your street. A one-on-one in a very tiny caravan contained in a big circus tent, a claustrophobic space forcing intimacy with the camera. A one-on-one with a man who has played all over the world. Success & disappointment assembled in one miraculous face. An intimate documentary on the transformation of an unknown man into the clown.

Thanks Lordi !