Ronny Gabriels Photography

In my latest post I promised to upload some of the photos from our weekend in Spa (and surrounding area).  So now, the photos are online and you can see them here.

Like I said before, not my best work, but I tried to enhance them a little and the ten photos online are the ones that I found of some worth.  So take a look at them and like always, feel free to comment on them.

The Coo Waterfalls

As you, as an avid reader, might have noticed, there hasn’t been much activity on my photowebsite lately.  The main reason for this is my enormous case of the winter slump.  I have no inspiration and therefore hardly pick up my camera lately. 
The past weekend should have broken that spell.  My girlfriend and I went to Spa (not A spa, but Spa, Belgium, where the water comes from) for a nice relaxing weekend.  Included was at least one winter hike in the woods and so, a great opportunity to take out the camera. 

Well I did take out the camera and started shooting the entire weekend.  In the woods, as well as in the town.  My hopes were up and I started to get inspired again.  That was until I took a look at the results yesterday.  If I may say so myself, a load of crap.  There were maybe one or two decent pictures.  The rest of them looked completely uninspired and rushed.  Let’s just say that this wasn’t very good for moral.  Just to show you and especially to remind myself, I will post some of these photos later this week on the website. 

So were do I go from here?  I have to get out of this slump and for my own good, as soon as possible.  Luckily, the photos can only start getting better, so that’s a start.  I know I just have to get out there with the camera.  Not shooting away vigorously, but just walking around getting some inspiration and then, most importantly, taking the time to make the shot.  So, starting this weekend, that’s what I will do as much as possible.  I might even get some extra shots for the “Antwerp by night” project.  Who knows.  I just know this stupid, humid, Belgian winter, and all that it entails, has to end. 

Last Saturday, a new exhibition called “Eye Candy 1984-2009” started in Antwerp’s Photography museum.  The featured artist is the well-known but quite controversial Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf.  If you don’t know the guy, check out his website. 

Since Erwin Olaf thinks of himself as an artist, the object of his work is to make you think.  All good art makes it’s spectators think about what it is they are looking at, how it makes them feel and maybe most importantly, if they like it or not.  As an artist, his photographs do not include pictures of reality.  He tries however to put his own vision into a photograph, his own dreams, feelings and thoughts.  And I can only tell you one thing, … not all of the thoughts or feelings portraiyed are fluffy happy thoughts.  There are quite a lot of dark and confronting photographs there. 

All this is not to say that I didn’t like the exhibition.  I liked it a lot as a whole.  There was more than one photograph that I didn’t like, but if the purpose of his work is to make you think, mission accomplished.  To my own surprise, I stumbled upon some personal boundaries of taste.  By which I mean that there were some pictures that at first I couldn’t agree with, that in my opinion were “over the top”.  This surprised me because normally I’m quite open minded when it comes to most expressions of art, but here I was confronted with a little known side of myself.  Calling it my “conservative” self would be a little harsh, because if I was conservative, a lot more of the pictures would have shocked me.  But it was a side that can think of a piece of art as on the edge of tastelessness.  Now don’t go thinking the work is “shocking” in todays standards.  There is nothing there that you haven’t seen anywhere else, but still it raises the question whether to call it art.  Well, the fact that it made me think about it all means to me that it is and I even appreciate those photographs for it a lot.  So coming out of the exhibition, I liked the pictures I liked and appreciated the ones I didn’t.  I don’t think a bigger complement can be given when it comes to art.

So my recommandation is, go and have a look at it.  Form your own opinion about it, think about it and look at every aspect of it.  It opened my eyes a little more, and I hope it can do the same for you.  Whether it works for you or not, it’s a very good exhibition none the less.

Information:
Exhibition “Eye Candy 1984-2009” by Erwin Olaf
February 7th, 2009 until June 7th, 2009
Fotomuseum Antwerpen
more information here.