FACING BRUSSELS
Our first collective Nadaar-project is almost ready. The exhibition FACING BRUSSELS will open next thursday June 9 at the BelVue Museum in Brussels. 11 BELGIAN photographers joined forces to make a documentary about the diversity of the population of our capital. The catalogue, published by BAI, is for sale at the bookshop of the museum and costs 9,95 Euro.
From the website of BelVue: "The media paint a distressing portrait of Brussels as a city populated by idle young people and thugs. The terraces, parks and prodigious art collections do not feature in the news. It is not easy to love Brussels. Sullen and genial, chic and shabby: the city is everything. Brussels is different according to whether you are a tourist, you live in the suburbs or the city; whether you are homeless, a noble or a Eurocrat. He or she who is born here sees things differently from the immigrant. Eleven Flemish and francophone photographers have translated this plurality into images. Catherine Vuylsteke has put it into words. Facing Brussels: a book and an exhibition, to see in the city and bookshops."
OPENING NIGHT: Thursday, June 9, 2010, 18.30h.
Lecture Nadaar
Punctum vzw invites our Collective NADAAR to deliver a lecture about our way of working. This will take place on the 3rd of june 2010 in the Zebrastraat in Ghent. There will be a book presentation of Paul D'Haese afterwards. Free entrance.
Knack
This week Knack publishes my story on poverty and the lack of social housing in Brussels. Alle pictures are made in the same house in the popular quarter Marollen. Inhabitants pay at least 400 euro each month for a dirty appartment, with no decent electricity, heating or bathroom. Pure misery, hidden behind a nice looking facade.
This story is part of the upcoming exhibition "Facing Brussels", a collective documentary of 11 photographers, showing each their view upon the Brussels population. Later on more about this.
Nomination Dexia Press Awards 2009
My reportage on refugees in Hotel Barry in Brussels, published in Goedele Magazine last winter, has been nominated for the Dexia Press Awards 2009. The two other nominations are for Layla Aerts and Olivier Papegnies. On April 28 the winner will be announced.
Goedele
Got a portfolio in Goedele Magazine this month, showing four previously unpublished photographs I took during my trips through the former USSR in 2007-2008. It's a funny issue about street photographers operating on beaches, on city squares in front of monuments, palmtrees or fountains. For a little money they make an instant portrait of you. They often use self made decor pieces, plastic flowers or stuffed animals.
The whole series contains about ten pictures. Some of them have been published in my book 'Red Journey'. Here are some more photographs of photographers at work:
Exhibition at LUX PHOTO GALLERY
From february 12 to march 12, 2010 a selection of photographs from 'Red Journey' will be exhibited at Lux Photo Gallery in Amsterdam. Opening will take place on friday february 12 between 5 and 7 pm. Many thanks to Lars Boering and Mirjam Boer for helping me organising this show!
LUX Photo Gallery represents a growing number of international photographers. Its main focus is documentary photography. The Gallery also sell prints, books and special editions to collectors and individuals worldwide via its website. A limited edition of my book 'Red Journey', containing this signed print, is being sold for 150 euro.
Students picture themselves on a Red Army tank-monument in Tiraspol, Transnistria
Lux Photo Gallery is situated at Het Sieraad, Postjesweg 1, 1057 DT Amsterdam. See www.luxphotogallery.com
Building a Fair World
Last september the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) commissioned the photographers of the collective Nadaar to report on development projects in 5 different countries across the world. This was the first assignment we obtained with our collective. Dieter Telemans went to Congo, Eric De Mildt to Vietnam, Tim Dirven to Ecuador, Jan Locus to Mali, and I was sent to Morocco, where I visited the dry region of Tiznit, Ouarzazate and the Valley of the Draa. A beautiful region, but not easy to work. The tempo of travel was high and the projects were many. Due to conservatism (and tourism) photographing public life was not easy. People didn't seem to like the camera. Women hide for me and men often asked for money. I should have had more time to build up a confidential bond with the locals, instead of being driven from one project to another in a four wheel drive. That's why my visit to Morocco left me with an unsatisfied feeling.
Nevertheless the exhibition, which opened last week, looks really nice. On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of BTC, 25 photographs printed on big canvas, were mounted on the fences across the royal palace in the heart of Brussels. And the catalogus, containing portfolios of the five of us, looks like a real book.
The exhibition lasts until february 17. Open day and night, in open air at the Parc Royal/Warandepark.
Foto: Dieter Telemans
Foto: Eric De Mildt
Work In Progress
Exhibition makers "Work In Progress" invited our collective Nadaar for their second show at De Zaal in Ghent. Hurry up and have a look. It lasts only ten days...
"Many photographers share their works-in-progress on the internet. But sometimes photos deserve more attention, a better print, or a less volatile setting. "Work In Progress" wants to give photographers the chance to show their works-in-progress in real life, through short-run and low-profile exhibitions, in a guerilla-style approach, with prints 'pinned' to the wall."
(from the Work In Progress introduction text)
For this occasion, Eric De Mildt shows a reportage about refugees in Belgium. Tim Dirven exhibits previously unpublished Congo pictures. Jan Locus chose his photographs of Zoos around the world. Dieter Telemans shows black and white photos of handicapped children in Burundi. And I decided to exhibit my ongoing series on poverty and housing problems in Brussels.
Thanks to the Royal Academy for Fine Arts (KASK) in Ghent to provide the more than 70 prints for the exhibition.
Nadaar at De Zaal
Nonnemeersstraat 26
9000 Gent
From December 11 to December 20, 2009.
Open from 4 to 8 PM on weekdays and from 2 to 6 PM on weekends.
Adedayo Folowosele and Florence Benga from Nigeria live with their three children David, Deborah in an old humid house in Molenbeek. They wait regularisation and can't afford a decent house. (Nick Hannes)
New Scientist
One of the photographs of 'Red Journey' has made it into the New Scientist 2010 calendar. The picture shows a herd of camels sheltering under a stranded ship on the former seabed of the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan. I took this picture in 2007 in the former fishing town of Dzhambul, near Aralsk. I couldn't believe my eyes the moment I arrived at the scene. I slowly came closer, trying not the scare the animals. I took about ten pictures before they started to get up and move. It was one of those rare lucky days during a long trip through Central Asia. All I had to do was to point the camera and push the button. Reality is often more absurd than my fantasy could imagine. Ships of the Desert
