Belgium: Sandro Miller: Malkovitch, Malkovitch, Malkovitch! Homage to Photographic Masters

 Gallery FIFTY ONE and FIFTY ONE TOO are proud to present the remarkable portrait series ‘Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich! Homage to Photographic Masters’, by the American photographer Sandro Miller (°1985) with the American actor John Malkovich in the leading role.

© Sandro Miller

 

For this project, Miller went back to the iconic images that have always inspired and moved him in his career as a photographer and recreated these memorable classics with his close friend and muse John Malkovich as his model. By getting into the skin of the master photographers who created these images, Miller tried to understand what makes these shots so captivating and how they changed the art of portraiture in photography.

Under Miller’s close direction, Malkovich masterly transformed himself into a diverse set of characters, ranging from John Lennon to Marilyn Monroe and Picasso to Dorothea Lange’s iconic ‘Migrant Mother’. Regardless the age or gender of the original model, Malkovich was able to mentally go to that specific time and place and convincingly become that person.

 

© Sandro Miller

 On view at Fifty One Gallery until January 30, 2021

More information: HERE

Belgium: Karel Fonteyne - The Circle

Exhibition/ To commemorate the 70th birthday of the artist photographer Karel Fonteyne and his 50 year career, Hangar presents a major retrospective of his work through a selection of 200 images.

As a flagship figure in Belgian and international fashion photography, Karel Fonteyne’s career in that genre spanned more than 15 years. His rather experimental style gave rise to pioneering images that went beyond classical fashion photography. In 1996, he decided to give up fashion photography to develop a more personal work. Karel Fonteyne is non-conformist. He plays with codes, deconstructs reality and prefers the complex to the obvious. “Generally, I don’t photograph what I see but what my mind reflects”.

The exhibition is neither linear nor chronological, but rather circular. The spectre of the present will not prevent the visitor from grasping Karel Fonteyne’s work because his images are ageless and out of time. Like a journey through the photographer’s mind, one jumps from photo to photo, from black and white to colour, from staged to spontaneous, from conceptual to fashion photography. The concept story has a direct influence on the variety of techniques. Concurrently homogeneous and heterogeneous, personal and universal, his work is an invitation to construct one’s own narrative.

Spread over the three floors of Hangar, the exhibition is composed of different chapters, where sensuality, esotericism, nature, solitude and humour combine to create a particular atmosphere of his inner world. Karel Fonteyne’s images awaken the senses and transport us into another universe. They tell a story without words.

A retrospective book entitled Spell will be published in September to coincide with the exhibition.

Biography/Born in 1950 in Antwerp, Karel Fonteyne lives and works between Belgium and abroad. Active since 1968, Karel Fonteyne began his career in art photography. He is fascinated by Tarjei Vesaas’ book “Fuglane” and by South American authors such as Borges, García Márquez and Cortázar, but also by the psychology of Bergman’s films, which got him started in photography.

He entered the fashion world at the end of the 1970s and worked for prestigious magazines such as Vogue, Interview, Bazaar, Marie-Claire etc.. He also worked with designers such as Martin Margiela, Dirk Bikkembergs, Dries Van Noten, Marina Yee, Walter Van Beirendonck and Dirk Van Saene from the outset.

His work has been exhibited in prestige venues such as the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP, Paris) (FR), Bozar (BE), Festival d’Arles (FR), Fotoforum Kassel (DE), Museo Fundació Joan Miró (ES), Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo (ES), ICC Antwerpen ( M KHA [Antwerp Museum of Contemporary Art]) (BE), Noorderlicht International Photo Festival Groningen (NL), Biennale de Photographie Condroz (BE), among others.

Karel Fonteyne has several publications to his credit: Entre chien et loup (1980), See Stars (1987), Black Earth (1990), Pistoleros (2007), Tales of Silence (2014), and Spell which will be released in September 2020.

Where: Hangar Photo Art Center
PLace du Châtelaun 18
1050 Brussels
More information: HERE

Opening days / 3 - 4 septembre 2020
Exhibition / 5 septembre – 24 octobre 2020

Belgium: Hangar Photo Art Center Reopening

25 years of photo works / Ruud van Empel
19 May - 18 July 2020 (new dates)

 

Exhibition/ The exhibition, on a museum scale, brings together more than 90 emblematic photographic works by Ruud van Empel. Twenty-five years of creation are presented through the most striking and beautiful images of his career, some of them iconic. The exhibition will gather enigmatic portraits, lush nature, and early works. As a pioneer in digital construction, Ruud van Empel presents for the first time an exhibition of such a large scale. During three months, the entire career of the artist will be displayed in one place. The exhibition aims to discover or re-discover an accomplished and extraordinary work. The show will allow the public to observe the evolution of Ruud van Empel’s work over his life, particularly concerning the mentalities and the technological developments in photography. Hangar proudly welcomes this globally acclaimed photographer with whom it has build a close professional relationship.

Ruud van Empel has already exhibited in Hangar twice: In 2017, as part of the second edition of PhotoBrussels Festival, and in 2018 with a solo show in Hangar front space (street front). The exhibition will be divided into three main themes: Nature, with 25 large unpublished photographs (ground floor), Portrait, with a selection of 30 photographs from the past ten years (first floor) and the Early works, with 15 small photographs from his beginnings, and a video screening (second floor). 

More information here
More exhibitions here

Belgium: Seydou Keïta and Norbert Ghisoland at Gallery 51

To launch its 20th year of existence, Gallery FIFTY ONE is delighted to present its upcoming duo-show including studio portraits by Norbert Ghisoland and Seydou Keïta. Both coming from different backgrounds and eras, they share quite a few similarities. The studio portraits of ordinary people, taken in different social contexts, give us a glimpse of how both photographers captured the surrounding society within the small constraints of their studios.

 

Seydou Keïta (Mali, 1920 - France, 2001) has been introduced to the art world by the gallerist in 1995 - even before the official opening of the gallery in 2000. Keïta has been a part of the represented artists ever since. He belongs to a generation of African photographers who enjoyed an international recognition only at a later stage of his life. This exhibition will only feature life-time prints signed by the artist.

Keïta started making furniture and spending a lot of time as an apprentice of Pierre Garnier, who had his own studio. Just like a few other Malian photographers such as Kouyaté and Sidibé he learned the trade and soon realized that there was an enormous demand for individual pictures. This drove him to open his own studio in 1948. Up until then, western settlers had had a lot of trouble convincing the local population of having their pictures taken as they believed they would lose their identity. With Keita all became different: he was part of their community and let them choose the image that would be given to the close family or friends.

From then on people queued up to have their pictures taken. The sole desire of people posing in front if Keïta’s lens was to look their best. To accomplish this, Keïta gave them costumes, accessories and furniture to further enhance their appearance. Men, women and children, all look perfectly elegant. If we look beyond the aesthetics of the black-and-white pictures, Keita shows us a portrait of Malian society in full transition.

Finally Keita was to become the country's official photographer, and stopped working in 1977. Nevertheless, it took many years for his work to get the proper recognition and be included in the famous "Rencontres de Bamako”.

Norbert Ghisoland (Belgium, 1878 - 1939) comes from the coal-mining region of "Le Borinage", in Belgium where he opened his shop and studio. He was able to attract a whole crowd of people wanting to be photographed either as individuals or in groups. Not only local miners came by but also middle-class people, military men, clergymen, sportsmen, young and old. Norbert Ghisoland chose the setting and poses of his models, either in a specific decor or in front of a white backdrop, always capturing them in a most positive way.

Ghisoland showed a lot of emotion towards all his models. They either sit or stand with their hands folded or with one hand simply resting on the shoulder of a friend or relative posing next to them, all of them without a trace of a smile on their faces as they come from Le Pays Noir, the local coal-mining area.

Tormented by the pre-war times and worried at the thought of his son being called up in the army, Norbert Ghisoland passed away in 1939 at the age of 61, leaving behind a unique testimony about his fellow people of the coal mining era.

Ghisoland’s work has been shown on an international scale on several occasions with the 2013 Venice Biennale as a highlight.

This exhibition creates an interesting dialogue between two studio-photographers from different time periods and locations, but aiming to achieve the same goal: to create a moment of peace and quiet in the rough day to day lives and entertaining their models using accessories such as watches, hats, bikes, etc., that weren’t available to everyone at that time. 

More information: HERE

More exhibitions: HERE

Brussels: Denis Dailleux Egypte/Ghana

Do not miss the incredible work of Denis Dailleux at Box Gallerie in Brussels.

He will be at the closing reception on November 2, 2019 from 4 to 8 PM.

More information: HERE

Belgium: FREE FROM MY HAPPINESS

At The International Photo Festival Ghent 2015
From 12 June to 30 August 2015

By South African photographers
Sibusiso Bheka / Tshepiso Mazibuko / Lindokuhle Sobekwa

“Free from my Happiness” is a group show by South African photographers Sibusiso Bheka, Tshepiso Mazibuko and Lindokuhle Sobekwa who grew up in the township of Thokoza in South Africa. They got introduced to photography in 2012 through the Of Soul and Joy project initiated in the township by Rubis Mécénat Cultural Fund.

They use photography to portray their environment, telling stories they feel close to. Invited by the first International Photo Festival in Ghent, their works are shown for the first time in Europe in the exhibition “Free from my Happiness” curated by Belgium photographers Tjorven Bruyneel and Bieke Depoorter.

In the exhibition “Free from my Happiness”, the 3 photographers document their surroundings. In At night, they walk with me, Sibusiso Bheka takes us through his childhood memories that often seem surreal. While Tshepiso Mazibuko with her series Encounters photographs the intimate space of people, Lindokuhle Sobekwa documents the life of young people using nyaope, a highly addictive drug popularized among young black South Africans. Nyaope. Everything you give me my Boss, will do relates to the slang drug users say when they beg.


Belgian photographers Tjorven Bruyneel and Bieke Depoorter have guided the 3 young photographers into their creative journey.

“Free from my Happiness”
At The International Photo Festival Ghent 2015 Sint-Pietersabdij (Saint Peter’s Abbey),
Ghent, Belgium
12 June to 30 August 2015 

More info: HERE