MY FIRST PASSION

A strong shortsightedness was discovered when I was about 3 years old. Till then, except for close ups, perception mainly was oriented by a feel  of my environment. That awareness remains the companion I relate to for my appreciation of existence.

I started then wearing eye glasses thus beginning to grasp what may have been obvious to others my age. For instance, discovering a written word on a board and realizing that its form and shape had a use for signifying a thought or something of substance.

I bought my first camera, a Voigtlander, when age 13. Before this, as a child, I walked around with a box  camera. My mother and I would develop in the bathroom the results of our finds . She was an excellent amateur and I owe her all my skills and understanding. With the 35 mm film camera I started my first serious  pictures. Some of those are displayed here.

Understanding the relation between focus, shutter speed and aperture, I naturally got interested in the fantastic possibilities that were offered to eliminate whatever was visually distracting from an experience. Framing, depth of field but also more important UN-FOCUSING and bulb setting. I had a tool that could bring back my primal vision! Photography gave a sense of trust in my visualization of life. It could actually SHOW what one could not see!

The pictures cover a span of time from 1965 till now which can be divided in 3 periods. The early stage concentrated on the sole use of the camera (with or without lenses) and working with positive films. No tricks with the lab. The images were than sorted out to create slide shows with sound.

The second stage involved lab techniques, which opened up awareness towards graphic techniques and ultimately painting. The result was put in common with mimes and dancers to set up performances

The actual stage concerns the use of digital cameras, software and the net. This gave birth to InterArt and later on will open up other opportunities such as creative exchange projects.

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