Graduation Work 2009

As I want to use this work on Collodion I thought it to be wise as to post the real graduation work first. This body of work was made during my  specialization grade at the Academy of Fine Arts Hasselt and is, simply said, about the superficiality of today’s society. It’s a series of 8 photos and a small poem written by me.

Dismissed

The manipulated image imposed by the media.
People try to become that image but fail miserably.
The photoshopped image will always be better than yourself, no matter how your surroundings feel about you.
You will never believe you’re pretty when you can’t compete with the beauty that’s being hold out to you.

Self Portrait

Part of the Graduation Series “Limited” 1/8

• Location: Studio

• Equipment Used: Rolleiflex T

• Film & Developer: Kodak Tri-X 320 & HC110 dill. B

• Paper & Developer: Ilford FB Warmtone & Amaloco AM6006 & Selenium Toner

Expired

Expired, old, in other words, you no longer exist.
From about 30 years old, depending on how soon your exterior characteristics bail out on you, you’re done.
In the fashion industry and Hollywood sceneries you’re no longer interesting.
Unless you decide to modify your external age in a way you fit within the image again.

I have chosen for a not too old looking person, who is in a fragile, delicate and introvert position.
Even bigger the contrast is becoming between text and person and hopefully will be a little shocking as to make people think a little further.

Part of the Graduation Series “Limited” 3/8

• Location: Studio

• Equipment Used: Hasselblad 501CM with 120 Macro

• Film & Developer: Kodak T-Max 100 & HC110 dill. B

• Paper & Developer: Ilford FB Warmtone & Amaloco AM6006 & Selenium Toned

Work in Progress

The most wide spread media-spitting machine.
It’s here you learn what to look like.
Pimp this, pimp that. And if by then you still don’t know what it should be like…

From an early age on you get these images pumped into your head.
Fast and merciless snatches of images are being fired at you.
Naive to think it as no influence on you.
Disturbing to realize the images contain so little real content.
Scary to see people so massively numb sucking up this footage.

The matrix sounds more plausible every day.
We are being so manipulated by this seemingly harmless looking box while it contains so much pressure.
Whether or not aware we are being exposed to this propaganda of which no one will manage to escape.

We are a work in progress.

Self Portrait

Part of the Graduation Series “Limited” 2/8

• Location: Studio

• Equipment Used: Rolleiflex T & Black Light

• Film & Developer: Kodak Tri-X 320 & HC110 dill. B

• Paper & Developer: Ilford FB Warmtone & Amaloco AM6006 & Selenium Toned

• Filter: Green to get to see the UV light properly on film

Classified

People like to form groups, place people in different groups, probably to hide their own insecurity, wear the same clothes, share the same opinion etc.
Each box has their own “dresscode” so to speak and each of them looks patronizing at the other. People who fall outside their rules of normalities are being laughed at, and worse.

We claim to be so unique yet we are all so the same….

Self Portrait

Part of the Graduation Series “Limited” 4/8

• Location: Studio

• Equipment Used: Rolleiflex T

• Film & Developer: Kodak T-Max 100 & HC110 dill. B

• Paper & Developer: Ilford FB Warmtone & Amaloco AM6006 & Selenium Toned

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a business management strategy, invented by Motorola, and is being applied worldwide.
Ssix Sigma is meant to track down defects and errors on the basis of 6 criteria and eliminate them.

My Six Sigma is meant as a parody on the cosmetics industry.
In this industry the problem is being created en thereafter they create the solutions in shapes like make-up, plastic surgery and diet pills.

Lucrative business this cosmetics industry. The mirage they hold out everybody wants. No problem, a few bucks and your dream is within reach.

Self Portrait

Part of the Graduation Series “Limited” 5/8

• Location: Studio

• Equipment Used: Rolleiflex T

• Film & Developer: Kodak T-Max 100 & HC110 dill. B

• Paper & Developer: Ilford FB Warmtone & Amaloco AM6006 & Selenium Toned

Under Construction

Breasts too small? A shot of botox works wonders.
Also for your lips they are an indispensable boost.
Ugly nose? We break and mould it to your desires.
Husband not satisfied with your derrière? After today merely jealous!
Messy vagina? Even when you’re 15? Sure!
It’s all fixable.

Harsh? No, mere reality.

Self Portrait

Part of the Graduation Series “Limited” 6/8

• Location: Studio

• Equipment Used: Rolleiflex T

• Film & Developer: Kodak T-Max 100 & HC110 dill. B

• Paper & Developer: Ilford FB Warmtone & Amaloco AM6006 & Selenium Toned

According to Specifications

The need to live up to certain exterior looks is of great importance these days.
A doll head with large eyes, therefore, was my goal, especially to emphasize the numbness en to create an unsettling feeling.

The content looks attractive, but as soon as you look at it, it would get to you, as if you would feel guilty about the feeling it provokes.
You would be sorry for them to be made victims. You would be sorry for them because you made them victims
by looking at them in a certain way.

Self Portrait

Part of the Graduation Series “Limited” 7/8

• Location: Studio

• Equipment Used: Hasselblad 501CM with 120 Macro

• Film & Developer: Kodak Tri-X 320 & HC110 dill. B

• Paper & Developer: Ilford FB Warmtone & Amaloco AM6006 & Selenium Toned

Overruled

The finale image
“The pressure to live up to society prevailed”
An overdose of reality madness

I can try as hard as I can, it will never be enough.
In the end I have to let it go. Give it up. Quit.
I can’t take it anymore.

Self Portrait

Part of the Graduation Series “Limited” 8/8

• Location: Studio

• Equipment Used: Rolleiflex T

• Film & Developer: Kodak T-Max 100 & HC110 dill. B

• Paper & Developer: Ilford FB Warmtone & Amaloco AM6006 & Selenium Toned

Epilogue

This is a subject very close to me. I don’t believe in mankind as a whole. Our superficiality and our need, our twisted desire to improve whatever we can to our so called benefits, our need to adjust the surroundings to us instead of adapting to our environment, which will ultimately make us a weaker species as we have become so depending on technology, these needs will be the end of us. Probably a virus of some kind will wipe most of us of the earth. That is what I believe. And that has nothing to do with God nor pessimism but sheer realism; people should take their own responsibility and it’s just the sum of events that will herald the end. I actually find the thought very soothing.

That doesn’t mean I’m a depressed person although these observations and feelings got me down more than once. Of course these thoughts surpass the superficialness as portrayed through the images above; it goes much further than that.

But I do have to say I love my life, I like making people happy around me to make life enjoyable and, so to speak, worth wile. But I strongly believe that we, as a whole, are a lost cause.