exhibition

The exhibit

exhibition, Uncategorized

is over, and I would like to thank everyone that has taken the time to visit my place and enjoy the show. I have received very good feedback and appraisal and even sold some works.

A couple of reactions from the guest book:

“Beautiful landscapes, that tend to meditation. Beautiful bouquets, turning decay into art, is an art in itself, that you master very well”

“You touched my soul”

“Congratulations, your recognizable style and impeccable finish, and yet innovative. Love the new landscapes”

…

thank you so much,

If you missed it, you might want to take a look here: https://youtu.be/hUG9H1m60T8

Ludwig

 

• Living sculptures •

fear of failure – girl with an attitude

contests, erotic, exhibition, Nude

hi there,

I had some very good news last week. I have received an invitation to be the guest artist for a rather well known exhibit next summer. All expenses paid. That is a première for me, and a pleasant one.

I have been checking out the list of guest photographers that have passed in the previous years of this very same exhibit. … some well known names, some great artists, some who I esteem way above my league. Then doubts started coming up … is my work up to this level, will I not be blown away by the other participants (selected by jurors and curated by someone known in the field of art photography) … It struck me rather hard, to be honest.

Take a deep breath, listen to my wife’s saying ‘you have been asked to be the guest photographer, so what are you still worrying about’ … I guess she’s right, so let’s go, … I enrolled in a mentorship program that starts next week. I had confirmed to this before this invitation came in. To be honest I had no real item to work on, till now. I will use this program to fine-tune my work, discuss my work, discuss the selection of images that will be exposed, maybe prepare a book that will go with the exhibit, … exciting times to come, I will keep you updated.

More great news came in this week, when the organizers of the ‘fashion nudes’ contest run by Normal Magazine (France) contacted me to send them the high resolution files of the images I sent in for the contest. This means I got selected in the pre-selection, and my work will be printed for the final jury. Jippiieeeee!!

One of the images I entered for the contest:

 

• girl with an attitude •

Goodbye summer time, exhibit closed.

exhibition, location, Nude

For the last day of the exhibit, i had posted an invitation on Facebook for a guided tour trough the exhibit. It was a cosy gathering, I gave visitors some inside, behind the scenes information, and people could ask questions about my work, my gear, the models, locations, etcetera.

The exhibit is now over, I have no idea about the number of visitors in total, as I was present only now and then. The reactions in the guestbook are mainly positive, some very positive, some very negative. It always shocks me to see how some people are still very narrow minded about nudity, even if it is brought with delicacy and taste. Fortunately I have my wife who is very supportive in getting me over this kind of comments. 🙂

Visitors have very different ‘favourites’, but in this exhibit, one image has received a lot of praise. It was an image not previously shown, and here it was shown in the massive size of 110x165cm (44″x66″), hard to miss. People praised it because it had a lot of ‘naturalness’, it seems not posed and very natural, at the same time intimate, and casual.

the model is Kate Ri, the image is titled • greenhouse flower • it was shot in the Royal Glasshouses in Meise, near Brussels, on a cold day in January.

The image is still for sale, as is all my personal work, if you are interested, send me an email on ludwig(at)ludwigdesmet(dot)com

thanks for reading, see you soon!

Ludwig

 

Turbulence and Crisis

exhibition, landscapes

hi all,

just a little message to announce a next exhibit participation, a group exhibit with the Zinkae photoclub in Ghent. This time I will be exhibiting not my usual subject ‘women’, but I will propose two series: ‘Turbulence’ and ‘private’ … Private will show a limited series of 3 images about our tendency to shielding ourselves from the outside world, in order to protect the personal living environment. Fences, doors, security camera’s, hedges … etcetera. …

‘Turbulence’ will show 4 images reflecting a personal view on landscape and nature photography. The inherent structures in nature, that seem largely turbulent on a small scale, lead to a certain order on a bigger scale. Disturbed fractals versus clear equations, and how these structures show themselves to us. Brought to you in delicate black and white images.

TURBULENCE III

the invitation for the exhibit:

 

then what about Crisis?

Well, things are getting tough, and If I want to continue my work as I do now, I will need to cut some costs, or find a new form of income. I am currently working on it, but of course your help would be welcome too. That’s why I have included a Paypal button on the welcome page. You can donate any amount, all is welcome, (I chose 5€ as a standard) and it will help to pay the costs of exhibiting, models, film, travel, …  this is the button: (this one is active too 😉 )


The exhibit in Sint-Laureins is still on and running, so you can go take a look, every day, 10-17hrs, till september 2nd.

 

 

Europe – Holland/Scotland/Corsica

exhibition, landscapes, location

It seems I have been shooting landscapes for ages, without really knowing what I looked for. I think now I have got a better understanding of the kind of landscapes I like, the kind of things I want to show. In my latest exhibit, next to a lot of sensual female portraits, I showed this triptych of landscape images:

Europe – Holland/Scotland/Corsica

 

I feel like in my beauty portraits, I can better express volume and light in black and white photography, hence the choice for converting them. In my landscape book, there are only three images in colour. The above images are the result of both family travels and solitary motorcycle travels, and my love for photography. Lucky me, to be able to do the things I love doing.

 

come again soon,

best,

Ludwig

Two days … building the exhibit

exhibition, Personal Pictures

two days to the exhibit in my own space.

 

you are all very welcome of course:

A little exciting it is.

from the 4500 invitations I received from my print shop (www.degrotearend.be) about 3500 have been dropped into local mailboxes in Ronse.

My book ‘LANDSCAPES – and other things that jump into my camera’ arrived yesterday. It smells fresh ink, but it looks great. I’m very pleased with the results and the selection of images I’ve made. The book ‘WOMEN’ I had from the previous exhibit stays unchanged

Drinks have been bought, but I have no idea how many people I should expect. I heard some rumours about people who were saying they would come, I have a Facebook event that some people confirmed on, but will it be 50-100-200?

The weather announces great, 21°C – 23°C is much more than we could expect here in Belgium around half October. I feel lucky!

The exhibit space is ready, the frames have been hung (without prints for now, I work with front-open frames that contain a support for the prints within. I will hang the mounted prints in the frames today. That means … all but one … Koert (my printer – laminator – finisher) called me last Friday that the largest print for the exhibit had suffered a fault during the mounting process (mount on Dibond). It is a landscape print of 50x150cm. So he had to order a new Dibond board to redo the print this week. No news till now. … keep the fingers crossed. By the way, I’m very pleased by his work! (www.fift.be)

Lighting has been fitted as well, called my brother in law (who is an electrician) for some help, he offered me a couple of up-lighters and smaller spots to add to the existing light in the room.

things that need to be done:

finish the digital presentation, set up a monitor for viewing, hang the prints, … relax a bit 😉

…

some impressions of the space preparations

Christian Coigny – Argentique

Analog, exhibition, Nude

It is becoming a bad habit of mine, visiting an exhibit at the very last moment.

So unfortunately again, this exhibit is over (till april 30th 2017), but he will be on show again in Brussels, really soon

Last Saturday I had the immense pleasure of visiting the exhibit of Christian Coigny in Tournai, Belgium. The exhibit was hosted by Event Particulier (www.eventparticulier.com) in the wonderful location of ‘Domaine de Graux’, where the organisation runs an event and exhibit centre since about two years from now.

Although I knew the work of Christian since quite some time (to be seen at http://christiancoigny.com) It has been a very joyful experience to see his prints in real life. The size of the prints varies from I think about 30×45 cm, over some larger 40×60 cm prints to about 2 m in size. All except for the largest sizes are genuine analog prints. Some 80 works were on display, all but 2 were black and white. Editions vary from a number of 30 for the smalles works, to 10 for the largest prints.

Both his ‘nature morte’s’ and his nudes are fantastic in terms of context, composition and light, and show an absolute mastery in all aspects involved. I was very charmed with the seemingly simple contents of the artworks, and with the almost out of this world serenity they express.

I decided to buy the book, and as this was the last weekend of the exhibit and the artist was present, I had it signed by Mr. Coigny. We had a short but interesting and very enjoyable discussion about photography, about men photographing nude women, and our (especially my) doubts and motivations. Very inspiring and interesting. We laughed a lot.

One quote I will gladly share with you:

“No matter if you know where you are going or not, you will eventually get there!”

Christian Coigny.

a portrait of the master:

Timeless beauty – exhibit – Larger than life

exhibition

A couple of weeks ago I visited the exhibit Timeless beauty, in the Gallo-Romeins museum in Tongeren (Belgium). I visited it together with my wife Nathalie, I think a female look at things helps having a less biased view.

The exhibit combines antique (2000 years old) texts with images from the late Marc Lagrange, who  died last year, in an unfortunate accident with a golf cart. I have been a fan of a large portion of Marc Lagrange’s work for a longer period of time,  he has made a large collection of sensual images in which he depicts women as strong, independent, adorable, glorious creatures.

I would describe the exhibit as ‘Larger than life’ in several ways:

  1. The images are presented literally larger than life, impressive large scale prints, some filling an entire wall, where the image of the women becomes even more overwhelming. A total of about 50 images are used in this exhibit, mostly images that have previously been published in Marc Lagrange’s fine art books.

2. The images are all linked with old Roman and Greek texts, (Roughly 100 BC till AD 100) so carefully chosen you can hardly imagine that the text has not been used  as a direct guideline to create the image. Some texts are literally visualised in the image that comes with it. An amazing search for coincident content has been made here. This makes 2000 year old texts revive trough the visual work of Lagrange.

3. All images have been linked to archeological findings related to the subject of beauty, to the deliberate actions of early age women to modify their looks for the sake of beauty. Both visualised trough objects, but also in video format, in which the techniques at hand at that era are demonstrated.

4. A selection of interviews of day to day women is giving a broader contemporary view on physical beauty. How it influences our lives today, how it is perceived, how women (and men) strive (or not) to achieve it, how decisions of medical/surgical manner are considered (or not) to be valuable, desirable in the pursuit to beauty … interesting hearing, straight from the heart of the people talking.

It shows that beauty standards are not just from our modern times, but that it has been present for a very long period. I have found it very interesting also to see how beauty was also very clearly age related, with a shift from pure physical beauty at a younger age, towards a more mature, innate beauty from a certain age.

As the subject of feminine beauty is often present in my work, I have enjoyed my visit a lot. It is wider oriented than just the male vision on female beauty and that is a good thing. It has a selection of images by Marc Lagrange that I love a lot. (I’m not very fond of his latest, more staged work).

And the best thing, you can still visit it, till june 30th 2017.

More info: Timeless Beauty

Saul Leiter – Retrospective – Antwerp Fomu 28.10.16 – 29.01.17

exhibition, Uncategorized

one thing to start with, I’m very sorry this exhibit is over. I have really enjoyed it (again on one of the very last days of the exhibit – I tend to postpone exhibition visits till the moment I can’t  any further delay it or I’ll mis it) so there’s no way you can see it here in Belgium anymore, sorry for that.

I have enjoyed the exhibit very much. It gave an overview of Saul Leiters’ work both commercial and non commercial, presented in the humble way that Leiter proves to be in the documentary movie (In no great hurry – 2012) that was made of him shortly before he died in 2013. Small paintings, small prints, and a vast number of images. I kind of missed a clear structure in the exhibit, but that might be purposely related to his way of working, and his total disorder in his huge archive.

Over a period of about 60 years he documented street life in the south-east part of New York, in a very particular way. He had moved into New York mainly to start as a painter, and this approach is clearly visible in his work. Deconstructed impressionist frames form the setting of a lot of his photographs, in which often a single person is the only immediately recognizable feature of the image. Often there is no figurative element at all, and all is fuzzy or blurred and an impressionist vision on the city life is all that’s left. Remarkably colorful, even in winter settings, he manages to make his images a delight to look at. Often the content of his images is captured between several layers of reflections, mirrored images, damp-dripping glass surfaces where you have to work your way around as a viewer.

Saul has become famous only after a very long period of working, and it seems he never fully realized the quality and the impact of his work. In this perspective I would gladly recommend viewing the full documentary ‘In no great hurry – 13 lessons in life with Saul Leiter’ as it offers an in depth encounter and it is a testimony to humility and unpretentiousness I have seldom seen in an artist of this scale. Inspirational at least.

You can see an extensive selection of his work here:

Howard Greenberg Gallery

another source of info:

https://www.artsy.net/artist/saul-leiter

thanks for reading,

ludwig

Helmut Newton – Retrospective

erotic, exhibition, Nude, portrait

FOAM in Amsterdam had a retrospective exhibit on Helmut Newton, fashion, art, fetish and erotic photographer from the last century. I wanted to visit it, and it ran till september 4th, so yesterday we went for a visit, unfortunately for you, my readers, its over.

I had an autobiography on Helmut Newton since a couple of years now I guess, and I quit reading it for I got a little annoyed, even irritated by the rather arrogant, selfish, non woman-friendly narratives in this book. (Helmut Newton Autoportrait, by Robert Laffont).

Anyway, I still love his work, his way of depicting strong, beautiful women, and his way of combining fashion photography with daring eroticism, both implied and explicit.

The exhibit had a fine collection of prints, starting with his 60’s fashion work (that made me think a lot about a long time favourite of mine: Jean-Loup Sieff), over the more erotically oriented images in his long collaboration with Vogue, his personal work with protheses and nude women, his impressive ‘big nudes’ and finally his extensive list of portraits of famous people.

Especially interesting I found the film montage, made by his wife June, which gave a very intimate insight in the life and working atmosphere in which Newton, his wife and his entourage moved along. Not the spoiled kid he talks about in his biography, but a rather playful, humorist, (hard) working, focused photographer. It surprised me that some people started sniggering when he was instructing his models into a certain pose, and that made me think about how little is known about this kind of photography, this kind of dialogue between photographer and model, to people who are not part of this world. We discussed about it (Nathalie and me) and she decided she should film me when I’m working with my models. – GOOD IDEA! –

I was rather pleased to see so many people visit this exhibition (Sunday being the last day might have been a factor) and especially to see so many women around. This makes me think the perception of Helmut Newton being an ‘objectifier’ of women is not a general one.

His work is inspirational to me, it has long been underestimated from the photographic art scene, and it probably still is, it was daring in its time, and it still is daring to tackle the nude subject in our times, so not much has changed. There’s a lot of work to do, and its a tough job, but someone has got to do it, so let’s get going. 🙂

some impressions, © of the depicted images is Helmut Newton of course.

HN01 HN02 HN03

Thank you for reading,

ludwig

 

Gafodi f50 Exhibit

exhibition, location

Just a small reminder of the next group exhibit I’m taking part in. Opening this evening june 3rd. in the usual Gafodi exhibit location (Racing, markt Gavere). The exhibit will be open daily from june 4 till june 20. The exhibit gathers 13 photographers, all having an indoor ànd an outdoor exhibit, in 12 different locations outdoor, 10 locations indoor.

My work can be seen in the entrance alley towards ‘Kasteel Grenier’ in Gavere, and in the horse-stables of ‘Kasteel Baudries’ in Dikkelvenne. The work that can be seen in the latter has been created during a one day ‘artist in residence’ session at the castle. The castle is not open for public, but you can see a glimpse of it through my images.

The exterior exhibit shows a selection of images from the last 3 years, ‘previously unexhibited’ work mainly.

Main theme of both exhibit remains ‘sensuality, femininity, fine eros’.

All exterior locations are free, there’s a common entrance fee of €5 for all interior locations.

a small impression of the interior exhibit:

Gafodif50_LD_interior

 

you are all very welcome!

 

ludwig

 

 

 

Thank you!

exhibition, Nude, Personal Pictures

Thank you, …
for your overwhelming presence,
for your fine company and chats,
for your enthusiasm,
for the fine reactions in my guest book,
for massively visiting my web-blog,
for coming to DAMME in the last couple of weeks.

It was a pleasure to present my ‘madammen’ in this small gallery, to talk about my work and your interests, to show you my book, to hand over so many representation cards and to meet you all, wonderful people.

The ladies are gone, …

but hey, no sadness needed, from June 4th you can see another selection of my work on two locations in GAVERE and DIKKELVENNE.

In Gavere (entrance road to kasteel Grenier) I will present a selection of 4 years of work, black and white, printed on large format in an outdoor exhibit (thank you Gafodi!) In Dikkelvenne (kasteel Baudries) I will present an unpublished series , result of ‘A day in Residence’ at the Château, with two different models.
The prints are made, the frames are ready, …

hope to see you there soon,

ludwig

the ladies are gone

Upcoming exhibits

exhibition, Personal Pictures

The difficult task of making selections:

selections

upcoming exhibits:
——
Kaleidoscope (Group expo teachers photography KISP) 22/04 – 15/05. CJK Claeys Bouüaert – Kasteeldreef 2, 9030 Mariakerke. Practical information can be found here: cjk.gent
——
Madammen in Damme 30/04 – 16/05. Group expo throughout the village of Damme, my work will be visible at: Oude Galerie Delporte, Kattestraat 2, 8340 Damme. Practical information can be found here: www.madammen-in-damme.com
——
Gafodi f/50 04/06 – 20/06. A large photo festival, with a lot of exhibiting photographers and photo events in all entities of Gavere.
My work will be visible at:
Exterior exhibit: Kasteeldreef kasteel Grenier, Entrance trough Molenstraat, Gavere.
Interior exhibit: Kasteel Baudries, Kerkstraat 5, Dikkelvenne-Gavere.

More information will soon be available here: Gafodi
——

spread the word, everybody welcome! 🙂

ludwig

Exhibit Opening – Gafodi Fotosalon 2015

exhibition

You must have heard of it. I have been invited to be the guest photographer at the ‘Gafodi fotosalon 2015’, a yearly event, exhibiting the club’s best work, the results of their national image contest and youth contest, and home for a different guest photographer every year. I have the honour to fill the main stage, … 😎 Last saturday we had the opening ceremony, 200+ audience, with speeches from the president of the club and some other honourable guests, awards ceremony and so on. As the guest photographer I  received a basket full of beers and other goodies. To be consumed AFTER shoots, not before 😉 I also had the pleasure to meet 3 of the models that are in at least one of the images on stage: Pauline, Jenn and Lisa. Thank you ladies, for coming to the opening, it was a pleasure to meet you again, and to be able to present my and your work ‘on a larger scale’. Pauline: Cirrus – actually I present 4 images of this shoot on this exhibit, you should come to see the others. Lisa: Lisa at the Mansion Jenn: Pearls and Sudden Gust of wind The exhibit is open this monday morning, next friday/saturday/sunday, and then again on monday morning. (market day in Gavere) I hope you will be able to make it. Next to my work there’s plenty more good pictures exhibited. ludwigdesmet_Gafodi BTS-2539 ludwigdesmet_Gafodi BTS-2551 ludwigdesmet_Gafodi BTS-2546 ludwigdesmet_Gafodi BTS-2558

Exhibit preparation – Gafodi Gavere

exhibition, Personal Pictures

Putting the final decisions together for the upcoming exhibit in Gavere.

I will present my work on the main stage, the selection has been made, the sizes have been decided, the stage setup has been decided.

Now the work  is in the hands of the print shop (Fifth in Ghent) and the frame makers (‘t Schilderken in Geraardsbergen).

Printed invitations will arrive soon, the models have been invited, some special guests too.

for your information, below I’ll add the opening hours (on the official event poster) and as a teaser a rendering of what the setup will look like – it’s blurred, I know. 😉

I sincerely hope to be able to meet some of my followers/enthusiasts in Gavere. If you plan a visit, give me a sign, I’ll try to be present as much as possible, but i won’t make it every day.

Gavere setup

gafodi fotosalon

Presentation

beauty, exhibition, photo gear, Uncategorized

very short notice, but not too late. Tomorrow evening I will be giving a live presentation about my beauty shoots.
How do I do things, which gear do I use, preparations, locations, models, the shoot, development etc.
Tomorrow night, in Ronse, Belgium. Just be there, or you’ll have missed it. 😉

Presentatie Ronse uitnodiging

Nude (In)cognito – the exhibit

beauty, exhibition, Personal Pictures, projects

hi folks,

last weekend seemed like a roller coaster of happenings and emotions.

last friday evening, I’ve built up the exhibit for my ‘end of studies’ project Nude (In)cognito.

Saturday morning I had my Jury presentation at 9:30. The jury was rather severe, and focused mainly at the weaknesses of the project/the selection/the presentation.

That’s the best thing they can do, show you the possible points of attention, but it left me full of doubts and questions. Had I not worked 5 months within the idea of presenting a very good body of work?

After that we had a funeral to attend to, unfortunately. Very strong emotions of sadness and helplessness. A very good friends grandchild died after being born prematurely, and a short life of only 8 weeks. Tears and deep deep sorrow.

Saturday evening came the reception, where I had the opportunity to speak to some of the jurors, and already better rumors came my way. (about my work presented) This helped me understand the questioning I had had early that morning. A glass of sparkling bubbles and a fine meal afterwards, and then off to bed.

Sunday, at about 10 am the exhibit opened, and we literally had to search for an escape route at midday, to get some food in between. An overwhelming amount of people have come to visit the exhibition. Rightfully, absolutely. I think there were about 23 students who presented their work. I have seen a lot of beautiful work, and I’ve met a lot of enthusiastic people, both photographers and visitors.

I would like to thank all the people who have attended the exhibit, thank you for your warm reactions, your attentions and the good talks.

I hope you’ve all enjoyed the exhibit. I enjoyed it for sure. Literally broken yesterday evening, but happy after all.

I’ll include a picture of my part of the exhibit, and I will probably post some more detailed ‘making of’ articles on the different shoots I did for this project.

For all those interested in posing nude, I’m rather sure that I will continue this project, so please do contact me if you feel like taking part in this.

thank you,

Ludwig

LudwigDesmet-portfolio-4697