culture, other.

My studio, Belgium. Much to my dismay, more and more products get shrink wrapped in plastic. For a few months I collected the plastic wrappings. I photographed the plastic hanging against a black background with three light sources of different color temperatures. This shaped them. The countries were the products were made, provided the titles.

Belgium, near Antwerp. Houses in Belgium are often build by young couples at the start of their life together. Once finished the houses are seldom updated and thus in a way they become time capsules of an era. When the owners pass away, their house are often put up for auction. One can view those houses during Open House weekends. I visited many of them to photograph interiors which showed times past the best. I combined the interiors with some exterior shots of the houses in the mist, which happened to be very thick when I was doing my rounds of Open Houses.

Cappadocia, Turkey. The girls created collages about their lives in their Shiite village in Cappadocia, known for cave dwellings and special rock formations. They used their own photographs and designed the collages themselves, showing their family life in their homes, which are traditionally in limestone caves. Below that you see some of the other photographs they took. Many photos were made by Merve (10yr), who had a very good eye.

Cappadocia, Turkey. I was not allowed to show the faces of the mothers of the girls in my photographs. Instead I photographed the scarves they wore, which they took great pride in embroidering themselves. I framed those photographs together with real scarves they had embroidered and I had bought from them for this purpose.

Cappadocia, Turkey. The sister of one of the girls was getting married that summer and I was invited to her lovely and lively wedding. For months, even years, the mothers and their friends had worked on her dowry: beautiful clothing, lingerie and home linens, all embroidered and often hand made.

Various locations/labs, in New York and Boston areas. For my genetics project I was allowed access to some famous labs in the USA, such a Cold Spring Harbor, MSG Hospital and the Broad Institute. I loved the machines, the contraptions and cataloging systems the scientists constructed in order to conduct and organize their research. That is how I tried to capture their artistry.

Various locations/labs, in New York and Boston areas. These small trays are essential to the genetic research, where the drops of DNA are collected to be analyzed. I brought some white transparent ones home to play with in the studio. The color was achieved by changing the light ratio of the flash lights, while a three-pass (HDR) digital camera system (a new invention at the time), recorded the red-blue-yellow spectrums. So the colors are none-existent, just in the digital image.  

Various locations/labs in New York and Boston areas.   The scientific notations in the genetic research labs I thought to be artistic and beautiful. Recording all the data, ideas and processes were done on whiteboards, in computer schemes and in maps. I was not allowed to publish some of these whiteboards since they were cutting-edge, ideas and thoughts in progress and thus secret.

Eastern Kentucky and West-Virginia, USA. While driving around in these parts of Appalachia I noticed a lot of scrap yards, in large fields, forests and next to people's homes. Recycling scrap metal and old cars appears to be a way to make some money. It is prevalent in this region, shaping the landscape.

Eastern Kentucky and West-Virginia, USA. While driving in this Appalachian region I started noticing shacks along roads, in forests and next to scrap yards.  It took me a while realize that these were people's homes. I was hesitant to photograph them.  

Various locations NYC. Men's best friend is photographed in the same fashion as the Five White Males, from above. Some dogs roll on their backs to show their submission, others to express trust and even happiness. Or they just want you to rub their belly. I always wished people could communicate this way.

Coney Island, New York. While photographing people sunbathing from the boardwalk in Coney Island for the series Boardwalk 1992, I noticed all the trash lying on the beach soaking up the sun in much the same way as the people. Plastic trash was a problem, but at the time, the extent wasn't generally known.