Complete interview text

At the moment I'm trying out different things in the field of materials/equipment and presentation. I don't necessarily have some kind of subject in mind while doing those experiments. First of all I’m trying out analog techniques. For example I'm working with a large format camera at the moment and I’m amazed by these large negatives. I'm just kind of experimenting with light and working indoors instead of outdoors. I feel like I have limitations in traveling because of covid and I feel like I have to figure out a way that I can continue making my work but without necessarily stepping outside or to places that need extensive traveling. I just made some experiments with lighting indoors to see if the camera is working properly, because it's quite old. It does work pretty well, and my mind is blown away by the quality of these large negatives. The grain is really soft and the contrast in the black and white film is beautiful.

 Some of the photographs that I’m making with the large format camera are just focused on the light indoors - very intuitive work and little experiments with how the light falls on objects, and some of them turn into abstract photographs, and some of them still have recognizable objects in them. These results make we want to step into studio photography too. That was never my thing but I’d really like to research a lot of possibilities now that I’ve started this Master. So I’d like to make an indoor set that makes you feel like you’re in the landscapes that I'm usually using.

 There’s an old camera that I have which used to belong to my grandfather. I took some photos with the camera and it turns out the light meter is very much off. I ended up with a roll of overexposed and blurry images. I did find these results very interesting visually because the outcome was very vague images. I’m used to making very sharp and colourful images but these were more like shadows of a landscape, instead of a clear image.

In some way these images remind me of an exhibition I saw a long time ago. There were paintings by Maaike Schoorel and at first glance her paintings looked white, untouched. Then, when you looked closely, you could see some shadows and very light colours on the canvas. I now find this very interesting because of the imagination that is left for the viewer in this kind of work.

The second thing I’m working on is how to present my work, however in this particular moment I’ve put this on hold for a bit. This is something that was on my mind for the last couple of years, because I'm used to presenting my work in a traditional way - having my photographs printed and framed. I want to figure out a way to step out of that traditional way of presentation. For example I bought this old projector where you can put slides in. I’ve been photographing with 35 mm and medium format before and I usually scan them and/or print them in the dark room. I want to research other ways to make the presentation more intense. For example turn it into some kind of projection and take up more space to really get the viewer into that experience that I had myself in the landscape. I also would like to experiment with video and sound. For example in Debeuckelaere’s work she combines still images with abstract sounds in a video.

Barbara Debeuckelaere is an artist who works with still images in video and sound. She made a film called Fishy Business which has an interesting storytelling form without using a written or spoken narrative.

Presentation-wise I’m also very interested in installation artists like Anish Kapoor, James Turrell and Ann Veronica Janssens. In their installations you seem to be absorbing the artwork because the entire surrounding plays a part in it. As for me surroundings and the human connection with them are very important, and I would like to incorporate those aspects in my work.

I want to be like a sponge and absorb everything in the upcoming period. Experimentation is key for me. I want to develop my work and in order to do that I have to open up a bit and explore more and new possibilities. The travel restrictions are uninspiring for me - there are many destinations on my list but at the moment they are pretty much unreachable. My own work revolves around nature and planet earth but there's something in me right now that wants to break out of that. The restrictions and inability to travel are guiding some of my experiments but are also making me interested in even bigger space.

 There are several series, both fictional and documentary, that evolve around traveling to Mars, for example Away and BBC’s Mars. They are very appealing to me because this subject represents something bigger than our own experienced world. I’ve been diving into NASA’s archive and found not only images but also recordings that might be of use to me. Shannon also referred me to Julian Charrière, an artist who builds miniature landscapes where it’s hard to tell the difference with a real life mountainous landscape.

I want to do something with environment and with that experience of being in nature and being in the overwhelming beauty and calmness which relates to work that I've made before. I want to create this dream world where you want to dive in.

I'm really stepping out of my comfort zone and working very intuitive now. Because I’m experimenting with new analog techniques, I have less control over the picture. There’s less selecting and editing involved afterwards, which gives me a sharper focus in the actual moment of photographing.  

I have been working with other materials and equipment than I'm used to using and making my move to the indoors. Maybe it will last for a few weeks and then I'll get outdoors again. I don't know how it will work out in the end. I'm choosing to experiment more, not sticking to what I know and what I feel comfortable with. I know when I make my photographs outdoors and I take all my digital camera equipment, that the outcome will meet my expectations. The significant choice is that I'm stepping away from that comfort zone and stepping into something more undiscovered. The physicality and tangibility in making darkroom prints is appealing to me too.