Extract from Dirk Braeckman's site : http://www.braeckman.be/

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Photographic work by Dirk Braeckman
'zur Zeit II', March - June 2001

The photographer Dirk Braeckman has developed an ambiguous attitude towards the medium as a result of dissatisfaction with its prevailing conventions. It is mainly the ambiguity of the photograph as a window on reality that prompts him to constantly question it. Braeckman constructs a new sort of reality on the basis of an examination of photography in all its aspects.

In contrast to the 'classical' photographers in whose work every discovery or system leads to a well-defined series of photos, Braeckman’s pictures cannot be arranged in series. Each image is enclosed within itself and can be linked limitlessly to any other of his works. Abstracted figurative images dialogue effortlessly with highly distilled abstract images. The hierarchy of thematic and formal categories is removed and levelled.

As in the past, the pictorial material in his recent photos is drawn from his immediate surroundings. But the range of usable material has expanded. There is the banal reality that surrounds him, but there are also other channels such as the Internet and reproductions of earlier work.

Braeckman’s pictures are not staged. Nor does he go in search of images. They arise out of an inner need. They are no more or less than the expression of the artist’s momentary experience. In this sense they are excerpts from a selective visual diary, the only common thread being 'life’ itself. His photos and their evolution must be seen in the context of a highly autobiographical slant, and a questing and self-questioning attitude that guarantees increasing insight and a keen intuition.

However, a one-sided emphasis on Braeckman's subjectifiable representation of reality disregards the complexity of his work. After all, in addition to the subjective tendency, his photos also contain an equally vigorous pursuit of an objectifiable representation of reality. This is expressed in the meticulous shooting of the image and the desire for maximum abstraction of the reality depicted.

Braeckman's photos deal with what cannot be portrayed. His work inhabits the border zone between concealment and revelation. His earlier work included self-portraits and portraits. The gaze the subjects cast into the lens is undefinable and stays with you. He plumbed the depths of his subjects, without trying to unmask their personality. This enigma remains, however great your effort to decipher it. And it is precisely this enigma that repeatedly appears in his pictures, though it is now increasingly distilled and abstract.

Among the recent photos is a key work in the artist's quest for abstraction. An almost entirely abstract plane, with only minimal reference to the object photographed, displays a refinement taken to the extreme. This image proves that a photo can show essence in an absolute manner, comparable to the contemplation of a sublime abstract painting. Does this work demand a terminology of its own?

Isabelle De Baets