Alex Webb: from dusk till dawn

In a retrospective exhibition, Botanique is presenting thirty years of work by Magnum photographer Alex Webb. It is no coincidence that the photographer's "Suffering of Light" refers to Goethe's theory of colour: "Colour came out of the conflict between light and dark. If you look at my work, you see intense light, and deep darkness." And thus especially: colour.

Because that is what characterises the American photographer's work. The colourful poster for the exhibition (1979), for example, combines lightness, heaviness, and colour. Heaviness because it is tragic that Mexican migrants looking for work get arrested at the border. "At the same time it happens to take place in a field of flowers, at dusk, and it looks like a scene from some strange kind of movie," Alex Webb explains. It is this opposition that intrigues him and has led him to make enigmatic pictures for the past thirty years.

SUMMER OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ALEX WEBB: THE SUFFERING OF LIGHT
> 7/8, Botanique, www.botanique.be