I'm a freelance graphic designer, and I started street photography in 2019. Initially, I meant it as inspiration, thinking of it as a kind of visual diary where I 'saved' interesting visual elements I encounter day to day. I thought it would come in handy for my work, like when I need an interesting composition or color palette, I could turn to my photos. Then it quickly grew beyond that... Actually, I didn't really know much about this photography genre; after a few months, when I was reading photography articles, I realized that what I had started doing was actually street photography. I really liked the genre's freedom and the openness of the whole scene. I tried all kinds of trends and techniques within the genre, and over the years, it became clear what I'm drawn to.
I love everyday human moments, the little micro-events observable on the street. I often feel like I'm in a theater when I'm on the street. I love that in street photography, it's not necessarily reality that matters, but rather I'm watching my own performance. It's an exciting game to compose different events, characters, and create scenes from them. Most often, I photograph interesting characters or situations where people are 'really living' on the street.
The other direction I'm increasingly focusing on is much more experimental. Instead of the classically aesthetic or currently trendy visual world, I'm looking for what makes a photo exciting for me. In these cases, I specifically strive to break down the idea of a beautiful image in my head and replace visual aesthetics with something else that represents content for me. The result is often intentionally blurred, out of focus (or sharp where you wouldn't expect it at first), decomposed, over- or underexposed photos, where these visual elements add to the message and are part of my expression.
For this exhibition, we've selected a mix of photos in terms of technique and concept. Our main selection principle this time was to show iconic Brussels locations or events, and it was also an important aspect that the photos have a counterpart among the other's images.