With their matte surfaces, gray scales and unclear motifs, the black-and- white photographs of Dirk Braeckman are utterly enigmatic. The photographer finds the subjects for his work in his immediate environment and he has a preference for places or spaces, particularly interiors. The undertone of his oeuvre thus remains autobiographical. In his monumental photographic compositions, he creates an enclosed and isolated world. Braeckman’s images are neither clinically observational nor anecdotal. The tactility of his work is highly unusual for the photographic medium and gives short shrift to the illusions of the medium. Braeckman investigates effects such as over- and under-exposure and printing methods. Working on the boundaries of the medium of photography, they combine fleetingness and substance, texture and distance. The pictures don’t tell stories, though one might be tempted to think so. Leaving the moment in which the image was captured behind, each work reveals the diffuse process behind its own creation. He has received considerable acclaim for his portraits of the Belgian king Albert II and Queen Paola, photographs commissioned by the Royal Palace of Brussels. Dirk Braeckman is one of the most prominent Belgian artists of the moment. He has exhibited in various solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally
