Jeroen De Wandel, Belgium

Ensō

"Central themes in Jeroen De Wandel's work are time, family, alienation & astonishment, looked upon from different angles, which results in sometimes abstracted, tactile images, always connected with reality. They can switch identity in function of the place they get in a series/expo, where composition and interaction between the images is central. He tries to entice the spectator's fantasy and makes him/her travel in his/her own mind and experiences. In that way, through the images, he tries to communicate from one's mind to another and makes you think about the image, in this world where we are bombed with concrete images.
Mostly starting out of personal experiences and interests (which can be an emotion, memories, old family related material, found magazines, science), sometimes from external factors, playing with reality and fantasy. It is unconscious work and too defined borders can disrupt the open mind that he tries to use to look at the world.

It's autobiographic, because the way of working expresses fears and desires from the photographer's unconsciousness. Every picture is a piece of his identity, where he carefully constructs new stories which results in an own visual language.

About the title: this is an ongoing series, but if it needs to have a title, Ensō would be the one to choose. The Ensō symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and mu (the void). It is characterised by a minimalism born of Japanese aesthetics.