• Art & Photography,  Art Galleries, Art Fairs and Exhibits,  Artists,  City & Museum Walks,  Fashion,  Lifestyle

    Les Rencontres de la Photographie in Arles #2 : reconstructing the legacy of indigenous women…

    The 2025 edition of this photo festival in Arles proved rich in stunning exhibits, and therefore we comment on this event in a series of further reports. Ikwewak woman, Aïcha, photographed by Caroline Monnet Photography can do many things. Not only does it freeze and conserve for history a fleeting moment that is gone forever, which gives it metaphysical qualities; it can also correct and re-interpret and reshape our human history. This is exactly what photographer Caroline Monnet does. She is born in 1985 to an Algonquin mother and a French father, which led her to reconstruct with her photography, the societal legacy and position of her indigenous mother and…

  • Art & Photography,  Art Galleries, Art Fairs and Exhibits,  Artists,  City & Museum Walks

    The Arles “Rencontres de la photographie” showed us this year new and unique perspectives on the human condition.  

    Photography from Australia took centre stage in the 2025 edition of the Arles “Rencontres de la Photographie.” We saw images showing us a dynamic of change and cultural translation. Indeed, the 2025 edition brings us “disobedient” images. Centre stage was taken and an icon of this years’ edition was an image of the series of Tony Albert and David Charles Collins, depicting a young (indigenous) superhero Kieran Lawson, amidst the beautiful desert country in that region. Les Rencontres de la photographie in Arles is a “must” every year for everyone who is even remotely interested in photography or in the images that depict our today’s world. As everybody knows, we…

  • Art & Photography,  Art Galleries, Art Fairs and Exhibits,  Artists

    Artist Anaïs López takes us on a unique visual journey…

    I met artist and photographer Anaïs López when I was touring the galleries on the Antwerp Art Weekend, which ran from May 29 to the 1st of June. She exhibited her work at Ibasho Gallery, a multimedia project under the title ‘the Turtle and the Monk’. It follows a true fairy tale of her search for the golden turtle Kami. The turtle got this name as it seen as the goddess of the Kamo river. It is actually a (three) layered story, we read on the handout on her work which the artist gave us when we entered the gallery. The story about the search for Kami is about mourning, the…

  • Art & Photography

    The merits of bridge cameras…

    With this Panasonic Lumix with a 25-400 Leica lens and a one inch 20 megapixel sensor, we put the spotlight here on the bridge cameras and the incredible value for money they offer, besides their versatility. To photograph the Mercedes A 180 in our latest test on my website autoprova.be, we used the latest acquisition to our stable of camera’s, the camera you see here above and below, a second hand Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ-1000. The Lumix DMC FZ-1000 has a metal body, which lies very nicely in your hand, an articulating screen, and an excellent, very crisp viewfinder. The finish is top notch. Indeed, as you might have read…

  • Art & Photography,  Art Galleries, Art Fairs and Exhibits,  City & Museum Walks

    Modern artists in the GEIST of van Gogh at NQ Gallery…

    On May 18 we attended the opening of a new exhibition at NQ Gallery with an intriguing theme: GEIST, evoking a ghost or yeast, we would rather say spirit, questioning the influence of Vincent van Gogh on contemporary artists. How far do his paintings and images stretch and how does it still define our collective pictorial history? Ronald Zuurmond made a series of 39 images, based on the very reworked pieces of Arnulf Rainer, which were also inspired by van Gogh. Ronald Zuurmond paints — or rather works with paint, with which he depicts landscapes, still lifes and (self) portraits. Overpainting and “underpainting”, Ronald Zuurmond’s creative pictorial process is continuous…

  • Art & Photography,  Art Galleries, Art Fairs and Exhibits,  City & Museum Walks,  Fashion,  Lifestyle

    “Untold Stories”, the photographic heritage of Peter Lindbergh exhibited at Espace Vanderborght in Brussels…

    Everyone who knows about fashion photography knows Peter Lindbergh. He is the man who gave us stylish icons. Female elegance, but photographed in a unique way which reveals their persona. Indeed, his photos show deep humanity, even more than style and fashion. He shows his mannequins which he elevated in front of his lens to absolute icons in this exhibition in beautiful black and white: Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Helena Christensen. In September 2019, Peter Lindbergh put down his camera for the last time. But this was not the end for him as a true photographer. He then started to conserve his work for posterity.…

  • Art & Photography,  Art Galleries, Art Fairs and Exhibits,  City & Museum Walks

    We visited Brut Photo BXL: the magic of Art Brut…

    This remarkable exhibition started with a beautiful private collection. Indeed, a breathtaking collection of Bruno Decharme, the founder of abcd-art brut in Paris. From there things have grown into what we see now with Brut Photo BXL. It is actually  a project of multidisciplinary exhibitions and events coordinated by the Center d’Art Brut et Contemporain La “S” Grand Atelier (Vielsalm) in collaboration with collector Bruno Decharme and 4 partner organizations in Brussels: Botanique, CENTRALE for contemporary art, Art et Marges museum and Tiny Gallery. It all started in 2019. The Rencontres de la photographie in Arles presented the exhibition PHOTO | BRUT collection Bruno Decharme & compagnie. The collection gained…

  • Art & Photography,  City & Museum Walks,  Lifestyle,  Literature,  Music & Performing Arts

    Culture in Europe on its mainstream media : an absolute treasure!

    In these Corona Times, we have to taste Culture at a distance. Why not discover what culture could mean in Europe’s mainstream (news) media, in three major languages, i.e. English, French, German? We went on a discovery tour, and here we present briefly our findings, which could enrich greatly your daily (art) life. In the Anglo-Saxon world, our first port of call is of course BBC Culture, (ttps://www.bbc.com/culture) a website which covers Film, Art, Books, Music, TV, Photography, Style, and so-called “Identities.” In the latter category, posts/articles are written for example on subjects like ‘how movements like Black Lives Matter have changed fashion in 2020.’ See photo above. Indeed, throughout…

  • Art & Photography,  City & Museum Walks,  Travel

    Street photography: Florence revisited…

    Last year in September I went on an automotive press trip to Firenze, and had an afternoon free to discover the city in all its glory, but alas, in the tourist season, I was not alone… What better thing to do, as an avid photographer, to leave the art treasures and monuments for what they are, and direct my lens to the people in this magnificent historic and iconic place. The street scenes which unfold in front of your lens – I had my compact Canon G9X – tell about the vibrant life in this city, and has a much more interesting subject than ancient stones: people. I took care…