BARBARA VANDENDRIESSCHE

CAPTURING THE EMOTIONAL BODY EXPLORING VISUAL POETRY

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My photos are often staged and focus on physicality, emotion, or expression. They look for physical and psychological vulnerability. I create the whole image as a photographer, stylist, and set designer. My photography is theatrical. But 'theatricality' is an elastic concept and also has many negative connotations: bombastic, exaggerated, false, or artificial. - Barbara Vandendriessche

With my pictures and sculptures, I seek for the beauty in the tragical. -- Barbara Vandendriessche

I worked for 20 years as a director and set designer at the theater. But more and more, photography, which I initially regarded as a sideline, invaded my professional path. I discovered how my experience within the theater influenced the language of my photography and experienced a sense of back to basics, of resourcing. In order to be able to clarify this more, I decided to leave the black box in 2017 and tell my story, starting from photography and sculpture. (I still work as a drama teacher at Luca drama, Luca School of arts, and as a freelance stage designer, f.i. for Milo Rau, NTGent).