DIRK BRAECKMAN

Dirk Braeckman studied photography and film at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten (KASK) in Ghent from 1977 until 1981. From 1998-2002, he was involved as lecturer at the Nationaal Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten (HISK) in Antwerp and in 2009 he started as guest lecturer at KASK Ghent. Braeckman started his artistic career as a photographer of portraits and self-portraits. Later, he chose subjects of abandoned spaces and deserted rooms, body parts, surfaces of desks, walls, beds, etc for his black-and-white photos. Fragments are enlarged and take up the dimension of an all-embracing still life. With vague contours, the enlarged detail aims at catching a pure and essential, universal and anonymous image. By direct attention for the detail, the miniscule is elevated to auratic dimensions of the icon. The pictures are diaphanous yet suggestive: one recognises a personal narrative behind the large, unframed, black and white, but mainly gray photos.