INTERVIEW BY NICO KOS 

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How did you start with photography?

My grandfather was the only one in my family who did something with photography. He made the most beautiful family portraits. He lived in France but we lived in Belgium at the time so we didn't had the
chance to see each other that often. My mother started to document all important moments so we could send that to him, like this he could have a glimpse of our life in Belgium. Because of this, photography and video were very present in our lives.
When I was six, I was given a yellow 35mm camera. I was obsessed by it (of course the colour had something to do with it), and so I started to take pictures of my family. I was always so curious of the results that I always asked to go get the developed photos in the store by myself.
When I joined the Royal Ballet Academy in Antwerp at the age of 8, photography ended up in the background for a while. It’s difficult to combine this demanding education with anything else. But visual
art kept seducing me, and photography stayed in the back of my mind. In the weekends at home I started to take pictures of myself in the garden. Mostly I used all I could find in the garden as props. But I didn't really use those pictures for anything, I was just making fun.
 

My passion was reignited when I got injured while studying Contemporary Dance at the Conservatory of Antwerp. I was forced to sit out the classes for 3 months due to an injury, so I suggested my dance teachers to take photographs of the dance classes and performances. They started as a documentation, but I quickly started experimenting. I felt I wanted to “make", rather than document. It feels more natural to me, since I have an urge to create. I would also rather make choreographies than to dance someone else’s. I started to think about concepts after school, with my fellow dance students as models. I see this period as the birth of me as an artist. I loved to share what I created, felt that need for acknowledgment.
On social media my photography was picked up by people and I received my first commissions. International art centre De Singel asked me to make the artwork for Bouge B Dance Festival. It was surreal to see my photography on immense banners all over Antwerp. I felt like a real artist for the first time in that moment. It became serious from that point, and I remember thinking that if people ask me to make specific work for them, my own conceptual work has to be as good or even better. That drive
developed my visual language.
 

Did you find your subjects early on?

When I started creating my work, I immediately knew I wanted to work with female dancers, people that understand their body well enough to take awkward positions. I was not interested in faces but more in
the form that a body can make. My photographs are anonymous, I don't want their identity to be the focus. Very quickly I knew which elements I wanted to photograph and what I definitely didn’t want to.
To make a good picture different elements are important for me. I focus on the right location that are mostly in public spaces but places that people would not immediately recognize afterwards. The models I
work with have to be able to understand and feel the mood of the work. I always ask them to take a look at my previous work. They have to understand what my work is about. Mostly I've already seen them
move before so I know their movement language and capabilities which creates a synergy with the subject and the artwork. The outfit will always be colourful and timeless, and the movement has to fit precisely all the other elements. With these elements I can start working on an image. That always happens before the shoot. Sometimes I’ll start with thinking about the character on one shoot or with the location for the next one. There’s no pattern. I can start from a piece of clothing I found, or from a colour. Anything can spark my inspiration. For example: I can have a blue looking image in my head, so I go searching for blue environments, locations. Or when I’m dancing at home, I can discover an interesting
movement, and create the image from that. It’s important that the artwork has personality and that all the elements are strongly colliding together.
I feel my work is one big series, or rather my blueprint. I don’t want to tell one story. I want to work visually, telling very different small stories within every image I make. I don’t want to define those stories
either, telling what they are about. I want the viewer to make their own story. Some may think an image is scary, others find it to be funny. It’s great to receive different responses. But I do have a theme: my photography always features figures that find themselves in certain places,
who are not aware that they’re there, thus almost dissolve in the scenery. I see my pictures as still choreographies, you can feel there's a before and after, but the characters are frozen in their movement.
Because they try to be as discrete as possible, they start to stand out again.

What makes your work so personal?

My photography reflects who I am. The way I stand in life. My work reflects the world I grew up in. The harshness of the dance world. My mother wanted me to be a dancer. I didn’t want to be the “Prima
Ballerina”. I didn’t like the high expectations and working to the extreme. But in hindsight everything I learned in my dance educations brought me where I am as a photographer. There are small elements in my work in which I can find myself, how I felt or feel. My work also reflects
my upbringing. When I was a child the spotlight was directed at me because the expectations were immense, but I was not always capable in handling it. In my work I’m hiding the characters. If they don’t see me, I can avoid the responsibilities. At a school where they expect the world from you I had this longing to hide myself, to create in silence, to be just me. I still struggle with that.
Writing is also something I’ve always done. It’s like therapy for me. I found an outlet in my texts, which are filled with humor. And humor is so important in my work and life. In real life I don’t put things easily
into perspective. But in my writing I can do that. It feels only natural to combine that with my photography.
 

Your art is full of joy and especially full of colour.

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Yes! I really love vivid colours in everyday life. And I know exactly where the influence for colour comes from. When I was 8, going for the first time to boarding school my mother used to make combinations of
outfits I had to wear. They were awful! Pink and yellow, blue and green combinations. I used to get mocked for my clothing. I never forgot about those colour combinations, and subconsciously they slipped into my work.

When I just started I learned all facets of photography myself. In the beginning everything was very impulsive. I didn’t
always understand everything technically, while now I know what I'm doing. The process of making a picture became more smoothly and I'm completely in the moment while shooting, I do understand now that my experience as a dancer and choreographer helped my photography work to
stand out more. It feels like I've found a balance between dance and photography. They met and never let go of each other.