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My work is based on thinking of past and present and somehow the juxtaposition of past and
present concerns.
I've been photographing portrait paintings in different art museums for about 20 years
now, and when I meet the painting in art museums, I feel like what I'm doing is knocking at
the wooden frame of the painting, and asking, 'Is anybody there?' For me, the thing is about
trying to create some kind of living context to reconsider the lives of these people once
being portrayed.
Perhaps the first time when I see the painting I'm interested in, is when I look at the eyes
of a person once been painted – that's what most attracts me. And that's always the starting
point. I move down to see all these medals and decorations all over his chest, but basically,
it's eyes.
I'm very keen on this painting really. It's fascinating how the face is very, very realistic;
a naturalistic way of painting. And then suddenly, all these medals are very... with these brushstrokes
and all these details are painted in a very rough way, almost like an Impressionist's
way, and this contrast is very fascinating to me.
But, also, I like all these very subtle cracks on the surface of the painting, because I
like this idea of a kind of biography of a painting, that it has a history of its own.
As a material historical object, it has a history of its own.
From 20 years on, I've been interested in light, different ways of using light and reflections
and shades and shadows, etc. When I was photographing the 'Wellington' piece, I was trying to place
the work in a way that there was a very strong reflection of daylight on the surface of the
painting. I was very interested in all these medals and decorations. I was looking at the
material painting and material surfaces of this particular painting; Goya's brushstrokes
and flow time and, of course, light, because I think that light is something, it makes
the world visible and photography possible.
I've been doing this series called 'Shadows and Reflections', and it's all based on portraits;
historical portrait paintings in different European art museums where I have worked.
If you think of those paintings, like paintings from 17th century – early 17th century,
probably – so there was no electricity and the paintings were in somebody's living room,
and it was very often dark, etc. So, you have to learn to look at the paintings when it's
dim, and when it's almost no light at all. And they speak, and in another way, differently
to you, in darkness.
That's when the paintings and these people, become really live and present, and they start
to move and talk to you over the centuries; somebody who has been living three, four hundred
years ago. And that's a very moving experience, trying to imagine the lives of these people.
What I'm looking for is that, I hope that finally, in my photographs, that the persons
being portrayed, that they somehow hover between beyond and behind the material layers of the
very painting itself.