DDK #13 | dedonkerekamer

ddk.#2 BRUSSELS - BOZAR - 23.06.2016

DDK #13 CONCERTGEBOUW

On June 21st De Donkere kamer headed to Concertgebouw Bruges for a special midsummer night edition: De Donkerste Kamer.

Lieven Vandenhaute joined Fien Sabbe in moderating the evening. The main guest was Stephan Vanfleteren. He presented his latest book ‘Surf Tribe’. Stephan Vanfleteren was not the only photographer in our midst. Artist Filip Dujardin was present to discuss his latest photomontages and installations. Teju Cole, American-Nigerian author and photographer, showcased ‘Blind Spot’ and young talent Dries Segers talked about his camera obscura experiments. As usual, Stijn Meuris treated the audience to a spoken column based on a photograph. Musical intermezzos were performed by Isolde Lasoen and Luk Vermeir.

The pitchers were Alex Kemman, Anne Marquet and Jakob Ulens. The overall winner of the evening was Jakob Ulens

Stephan Vanfleteren:

Stephan Vanfleteren presents his new exhibition ‘Surf Tribe’. For this project the photographer traveled around the world looking to capture the true essence of surf culture. No action shots on azure blue waves; instead, ‘Surf Tribe’ consists of serene black and white portraits in Vanfleteren’s well-known, haunting style. This yields a beautiful contrast with the colorful surf world. Stefan Vanfleteren pictured 2500 surfers, ranging from talented youngsters, living icons and revered legends, competition surfers to free surfers. He reveals the real person behind the surfer, in all his or her strength and vulnerability.

Filip Dujardin:

Art- and architectural photographer Filip Dujardin started photographing architecture in a conventional way, but soon felt the urge to intervene in the aesthetics of his subjects. His photomontages are a collection of futuristic, impossible structures created using a digital collaging technique from photographs of real buildings in and around ghent. At first glance these creations seems perfectly normal, but a closer look reveals missing or absurd details.

Teju Cole:

Teju Cole is an acclaimed novelist, an influential essayist, and an internationally exhibited photographer. His latest book ‘Blind Spot’ consists of more than 150 full-color photos of countries, each accompanied by his own words, forming a multimedia diary of years of near-constant travel. Rarely do Cole’s images of streets, doors, mirrors, murals, pavements, interior and exterior walls disclose their specific geographical setting. Only his captions reveal that. The point here is not the exotic but its opposite: the mysteries of the ordinary.

Dries Segers:

Dries Segers strips photography down to its essence. Using only the basic components of photography: light, time and photosensitive material, his images are the result of spontaneous and almost naïve experiments. The outcome are abstract and astonishingly poetic images, that disorient the viewer. The observer needs to rely solely on his imagination and needs to let go of any grasp of the real world, as there are no recognizable forms, to gain access to the work. Dries Segers swears by the uncontrolled and sees himself only as a supporter of photography itself, not the creator of the images.

DDK #13