Studio visit: Max Pinckers
The decisive moment, Henri Cartier-Bresson’s idea of the photographer’s “creative fraction of a second”, is lost on Max Pinckers. The Brussels-based photographer prefers to stretch that split second to a compelling reflection on the wondrous hybrid world where reality and fiction collide. “Why do we always have to look at pretty pictures?”
Max Pinckers uses this freedom to create a virtuoso interplay with registers, types of images, gradations of reality, and story lines – hailed by masters like Martin Parr and Alec Soth. “I never really took documentary photos. Starting with Lotus, my first photobook that I made with Quinten De Bruyn, it was very clear that I wanted to do something different. We were fascinated by classical documentary photography and by the position of the photographer as someone who takes that one visual record that captures that one moment. We thought that was nonsense. Why wait for that moment if you can create it yourself? By staging and manipulating everything, we wanted to undermine the whole premise of the photographer who goes somewhere, stays in the background, and straightforwardly records what happens. What makes a photographer who records terrible atrocities decide to depict them in an aesthetic way? Why do we always have to look at pretty pictures? Those are the things that made us over-aestheticise everything in Lotus, to show the constant manipulation.”
All photos © Heleen Rodiers
Borough: Brussels
Exhibitions: “The Only Thing You Can't Get Is Red Ink” (with Quinten De Bruyn and Gauthier Oushoorn): 28/5 > 29/6, G262 | Sofie Van de Velde, Antwerp, sofievandevelde.be; “A Whitsun Wedding | Episode 2” (group show): 1 > 28/6, Galerie EL, Welle, users.skynet.be/galerieEL; “The Conclusion of A Movement in A Neutral Direction” (with Gauthier Oushoorn – Summer of Photography): 5/6 > 6/7, Botanique, Brussels, www.botanique.be; “The Belgian Six” (group show – Summer of Photography): 17/6 > 31/8, Bozar, Brussels, www.bozar.be, www.summerofphotography.be
Publication: Will They Sing Like Raindrops or Leave Me Thirsty – launch at Tipi Bookshop, www.tipi-bookshop.be
Info: www.maxpinckers.be
Read more about: Expo
Fijn dat je wil reageren. Wie reageert, gaat akkoord met onze huisregels. Hoe reageren via Disqus? Een woordje uitleg.