I recently was in Sao Paulo where I visited an exhibit of the
world-famous Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. I was
never much impressed by his gardens and parks: I find them cold,
unrelated to nature. What I didn´t know is that before using plants as
an art medium he was a painter and sculptor (among many other things).
I liked very much some of his paintings. But then he thought of using
another medium for his creativity: plants. He expressed himself through
plants instead of through painting, so his landscape creations are an
image of himself, not an image of nature. As I love nature, I much
prefer to see plants in their natural landscaping. It is harmonious by
itself, with no need of a strong personality to modify it.
Another famous Brazilian artist is photographer Sebastiao Salgado,
famous for his images of people living in harsh conditions in northeast
Brazil and elsewhere. He also somehow transforms reality, but, in my
opinion, instead of imposing himself on reality, he multiplies reality,
giving it an emotional impact on pictures that might otherwise be plain
documentary pictures. Salgado is one of my favorite photographers
(along with Frans Lanting for nature photography).
And what about the Belgian “exiled” photographer? I wouln´t dare
to compare myself to any of the two artists above. I try in my
photography to show people or nature just as they are, trying to remove
myself from the photograph. When I work with people I may spend days
without taking pictures, until I am, to them, part of the environment.
For nature I may go for a hike without my camera, to get a feel of the
environment. Of course if I happen to carry my camera and I see
something unexpected and interesting I will photograph it.
My goals are to enjoy nature and contact with local people, photograph
what I enjoy, and selling it by necessity (to fulfill the first two
goals, and to sustain my family)
I enjoy going to remote, little known places, leaving the city stress behind. I
currently photograph the Cerrado (savannas) and rural people of the Central Brazil Highlands, in a region with no cell phone and no internet. If local people want to talk to someone they get on their horse and go there.