they look for…

…animals but all they find are trees. A new publication.

While visiting Corcovado and other national parks in Costa Rica, I noticed other visitors were mostly interested in finding and spotting species of the animal kingdom. I found that they didn’t give the best part of the nature in those places the attention it deserved: the immense richness of species of the plant kingdom. Especially the amount of different tree species that can be found was ungraspable. During the visits, hikers are guided so they won’t get lost but I ended up getting lost while editing the photographs years after actually being there: trying and retrying endless combinations of photographs or parts of photographs while following the directions of plant growth or their shades of green. It was an extension of the journey and an interesting challenge to convey this experience into a publication.

The publication is published and printed by Buroform as part of the Café Cliché event “Let’s Talk About Books, Baby”, which was on the 6th of October 2022. Buroform is a printing house in Mechelen, Belgium, which every year organises a get together focused on 1 specific printing topic. This time, four publications were made and presented, explaining everything about printing techniques, material choices and binding methods.

The book is designed by Tina De Souter. Working with Tina was a bless: we immediately synced. For instance, the first meeting we proposed the same paper for the book block: Woodstock Grigio and Betulla by Fedrigoni. I couldn’t be more satisfied with the result of our collaboration. You can find more information about her work on her website.

The book is available at the TMSN Shop, Buroform and Tipi Bookshop.

Lastly, a special edition is also available, which includes a RISO print by SO-RI studio. . It is printed by a RISO duplicator (EZ517e) on Biotop (90gsm) in Yellow, Green and Black RISO ink. This results in a real green explosion. A magnificent result which both opposites and accords the publication.

The special edition is available at TMSN Shop and Tipi Bookshop in edition of 9 (+1 artist print). Every print is unique so be sure to check it out.

More prints coming soon.

Nov 22, 2022

random three, buy local and ccc

Last year I published a photobook titled an essay on the concave city corner, the reward of a long and intensive process of photographing, conceptualising, studying, designing and writing. After spending a lot of time and energy on that single project, I needed something less complex, for a change: bringing random images together, without too much contemplation or purpose. One result is this series of three photographs shot in the city.

I decided to make them available as prints, partly due to the Buy Local event at the Kunsthal in Ghent, a Summer Salon of art with more than 500 works of artists with a clear connection with the city. Paintings, prints, sculptures, photography and textile works, as well as a happening and offered services all together make up a well-filled exhibition in the style of the former Paris Salons, and of course all for sale.

Prints are available through the TMSN shop in two versions: a borderless edition of 10 and a slightly larger with border edition of 5. There is also a framed version available on request. But you can also view and buy a framed random three city #2 at the Kunsthal in Ghent until the last weekend of August (you need to book a time slot).

an essay on the concave city corner is still available for sale in the TMSN shop. In case you missed it and are interested in finding out what’s going on in the book, the above video explains on how to analyse a concave city corner. If that confuses rather than convinces you, you might want to read this excellent review at collector dialy to have a more clear idea.

Also available at Tipi Bookshop; Reminders Photography Stronghold; and distributed by Idea Books.

Aug 08, 2020

an essay on the concave city corner, published

It has been a busy year since an essay on the concave city corner won the Photobook Week Aarhus Dummy Award in 2018. A long but interesting and satisfying process has passed to create a published book from the dummy. After learning what to ask for, KOPA was chosen as the printing house. This was followed by wet proofing, empty dummy checking and changing design details to match the offset printing process. Chief curator of PWA, Moritz Neumuller, helped overlook the printing and Raimundas Austinkas performed colour separations. We were very well prepared so everything went smoothly on the printing day.

The book was presented at Photobook Week Aarhus 2019 last week with an exhibition at Dokk1, the main public library, curated by Jesper Rasmussen. We also organised a psychogeographical walking tour in the city, comprising 14 concave corners for people to experience first hand. You can find the digital version of the flyer here. It is still possible to visit Aarhus and let the corners show you the city in a unconventional way. Anything can happen during your walk. And if you are in Aarhus, you can also pop into Galleri Image and get a copy of the book. More photographs (credit: Emily Beresford) of the whole weekend can be found here.

Two weeks ago, the book was also soft launched at Unseen Book Market at the table of Tipi Bookshop. Thank you to everyone who came by and of course Andrea for hosting me, which he’ll be doing again at Polycopies in Paris (November 6-10). Maybe I’ll see you there! He will have my book too this weekend at the Institut Pour La Photographie in Lille.
Meanwhile, the book is also available on my website (see about) and the dedicated concave city corners website (see info). For those who didn’t know, prints are also for sale. So if you like a particular corner, let me know.

Oct 11, 2019

featured: european photography magazine

The Photobook Week Aarhus dummy award has been featured in issue 104 of the European Photography Magazine, it includes three short features of the top 3 finalists and some background about the award and the festival. It is available here.

Jan 17, 2019

an essay on the concave city corner,
a newsletter

A lot of people have been asking me when the book will available or have shown interest in buying a copy. I’ve opened a newsletter to keep you informed about the progress: from dummy to published book. The first newsletter is due at the end of the month. You don’t have to worry about spam, there will be only 1 or 2 updates before the book will be available.

If you follow this link you can subscribe.

Jan 12, 2019

an essay on the concave city corner, an overview

Last spring and summer my dummy an essay on the concave city corner got shortlisted at Self Publish Riga 2018 (winner of the audience award) and Unseen 2018. And last but not least it has won the Photobook Week Aarhus 2018 dummy award! I’m very honoured and happy the jury selected an essay on the concave city corner as the winner from the top 3 finalists (myself, Kensaku Seki and Jens Schwarz). The jury motivated their choice as follows:

An essay on the concave corner is a book that does very much on very little. It explores the absurdity and beauty in photographing corners, that might be overlooked, and sets up an exaggerated system of measuring and analyzing what we see. Content and form work together in a radical way. With the slim format the book becomes an object, and the design emphasizes the tall photographs of corners. The many fold-outs works well, as they actually repeat the geometry of the corners. An essay on the concave corner is not just a photobook, it is also an artists book, and it tends to bridge the gaps, that there often are between those two disciplines.

I especially like the opening sentence, as it’s what I’m aiming for. Winning the award means that the dummy will be published by Photobook Week Aarhus in collaboration with Kvadrat and the Reflektor platform. It will distributed by Idea Books in a media partnership with European Photography. And it will be available through me too. So let me know if you are interested.

Next to this I also made a dedicated website for the dummy and it’s content: the corners and the analysis. You can find it through my website or directly here. Please check it out and take your time!

(photo credit: Kensaku Seki)

Nov 05, 2018

featured: an essay on the concave city corner, the dummy.

BrowniE has featured my dummy an essay on the concave city corner on their website with a short interview. They found my dummy in the Bring Your Photobook caravan of the Liege Photobook Festival and selected it as one of their favourites. L’interview est en français.

Apr 26, 2018

exhibition: real estate architecture summer school 2017

I’ve photographed the Brussels north district in commission by Real Estate Architecture together with Antoine Espinasseau. While I explored the exterior of the district, Antoine explored the interiors. Real Estate Architecture are 4 architects who explore the legacy of architectures built by private developers during the 1960s and 1970s. This year they organize a summer school about the office building in the WTC towers in Brussels, where the exhibition will also be. It opens this Sunday, if you find time, please go and see!

Aug 23, 2017

publication: derivations 4

Some of my concave city corners photos were published in the InterCity section of Dérivations. The magazine is a biannual review that focuses on the city in all its facets. It offers analysis, inquiry, debate, art criticism, opinion texts, but also photography, drawings and comics. Dérivations wants to make the city a subject in its own right in a French-speaking Belgium that obviously disinvests its big cities. It’s available here.

Jul 01, 2017