honorable mention
Pascal Demeester united states
title
"Vanishing Point"
The sites found, became sanctuaries of sorts to which I can go back and explore their evolutions according to the time and seasons, until their possible disappearances.Using techniques that are as discreet as possible, the elegance of the landscape's harmonious inner natural composition and the application of the contrapuntal principle, I want to create potential moments where a photograph will visually destabilize me, triggering specific cultural memories.During these moments, my spirit, has no choices but to spontaneously build webs of visual, emotional and musical sensations freely above the original documentary print.
Inspired in a early age by his uncle, the belgian abstract sculptor Marcel Arnould ( 1928-1974 ), he decided to fellow an artistic life.
He studied at the Ecole de Recherche Graphique (Erg) Brussels, Belgium (director Pierre Sterckx) and obtained a MA degree.
During the Erg years, he had the privilege to have as teachers: the belgium photographer Jacques Vilet, the semiologist Michel Assenmacker,
the art historian Michel Ceder, and the writer and art critic Pierre Sterckx.
He currently lives and works in New York City.
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entry description
This work consist mainly in finding a strategy to release the persistence of the documentary effect of a photograph (which is the essence of an analog photographic image) without neglecting the importance of the documentary purpose of those images which in this case, will raise also environmental concerns.Paradoxically, to complete that goal, I understood that I have to record voraciously specific fragments of the material reality with integrity and neutrality. Pure photography. Transparency. No subterfuge. All tentative to move away from the imperial reality by technical means (lack of focus, filters, print manipulations, etc...) will inevitably lead me to perceive the images as a " technical experience" which will result in reinforcement of the referents presence. Needless to say that a digital image won't help me to achieve that quest as they are disconnected by nature from their material origin and will always be perceived as suspicious and "already retouched". I had to find peculiar fragments of reality, which after having been recorded and printed will have the particularity to disappear before my eyes. Naturally, landscape studies became my place of predilection for my research. During the last three years, I rode my motorcycle with a 4x5 Ebony Camera through the landscapes of France, Belgium and England.The sites found, became sanctuaries of sorts to which I can go back and explore their evolutions according to the time and seasons, until their possible disappearances.Using techniques that are as discreet as possible, the elegance of the landscape's harmonious inner natural composition and the application of the contrapuntal principle, I want to create potential moments where a photograph will visually destabilize me, triggering specific cultural memories.During these moments, my spirit, has no choices but to spontaneously build webs of visual, emotional and musical sensations freely above the original documentary print.
about the photographer
Pascal Demeester was born in the commune of Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium on July 7th 1959.Inspired in a early age by his uncle, the belgian abstract sculptor Marcel Arnould ( 1928-1974 ), he decided to fellow an artistic life.
He studied at the Ecole de Recherche Graphique (Erg) Brussels, Belgium (director Pierre Sterckx) and obtained a MA degree.
During the Erg years, he had the privilege to have as teachers: the belgium photographer Jacques Vilet, the semiologist Michel Assenmacker,
the art historian Michel Ceder, and the writer and art critic Pierre Sterckx.
He currently lives and works in New York City.
back to gallery