The project "Brusselse scènes, Bruxelles en scène"

How well can you really know a big city that you have lived and worked in for years? The photo documentary Brusselse scènes, Bruxelles en scène is the result of a journey of exploration through the city’s 19 municipalities, known under the collective name of Brussels.

I want to champion slow photography that takes the time necessary to fully fathom a subject. That is why since 2009, I have been wandering through the streets of this urban labyrinth, and I haven’t been able to reach the end of the maze just yet.

The different chapters of the photo documentary show how I experience the city, full of life as well as desolate, grey and bleak but also colourful and warm. Brusselse scènes, Bruxelles en scène is not an encyclopaedia about the Brussels-Capital Region, but more of a personal impression of an engaged resident/photograper

Bonsoir Bruxelles

After sunset, the city transforms.

Daylight makes way for all manner of artificial lights, the colours fading to dark orange or blue-green. A quaint little back lane turns into a dark lair where in our imagination, all kinds of dangerous figures might lurk.

The action of the scene fades away, the actors disappear to the background, but the traces remain, and the stage becomes visible.


Series de photos Bonsoir Bruxelles

Brükselisations

Brussels is the number one demonstration capital of Europe. Three out of four days there is a demonstration going on somewhere in the city.

Some demonstrators come from far and wide to shout their opinions from the rooftops.

Besides demonstrations, countless events are organised that don’t always get the media attention they deserve. These picnics, carnivals, parties, Facebook events, and processions tell a much happier and friendlier story of the city. They refute the image of the gritty, impersonal metropolis that many people imagine Brussels to be.


Photos Brükselisations

The end of the journey?

The more I wander through its streets, the more I realise that I will never fully fathom the city. It is an endless search and that is precisely what drives me to continue the project. Below a little taste of the sequel:

En Route

Hundreds of thousands of people use public transportation every day to get around the city.

Commuters on their way to work, a group of teenage girls on their way to school, and the man behind the camera also gladly uses this mode of transportation.


More information

Rue, straat, calle, street, sokak, strada, mitaani, ulica, stradă

These streets, squares and parks represent the face of the city.

They are the city’s veins, holding up a mirror to the inhabitants, tourists and travellers.


Photos Rue

Chronicle of an (un)expected attack

On 22 March The city shook to its foundations...

But..." "It is not an attack that will disrupt our model of society, but it‘s impact: how we react to this drama." Christophe Busch


Series de photos Chronique