Haute Photographie Rotterdam has become a recurring highlight of the end of winter, a moment to get warm again despite the cold winds, admiring the work carefully selected by Roy Kahmann, the very charming master of ceremony, always present and attentive. A chat with him goes a long way, straight to the new talents he is revealing. This time around, two young artists emerge out of the crowd of very talented individuals carried by the gallery. janus van den Eijnden from The Netherlands and Stefan Neagu from Romania. Having a chat with both was refreshing. The photographs of Janus tell the story of a time passed, rodeos in the far west, old western shots, highly contrasted, rough men fighting the elements and the hostiles. When it comes to think of it, one is wondering where these pictures were actually taken. The USA? no, the clothes are old and ragged. I decided they were people living in the remote spots of the pampa of Argentina. I went to enquire and what a surprise it was to discover that none of these people actually existed as human beings. Those scenes are entirely generated by AI. The work of the artist is to call upon those scenes and painstakingly carving the bits into something that appeals to him. The result is stunning and unbelievable. Stefan Neagu is a delicate Romanian artist full of sensitivity for the things around him. His nude photographs are tasteful and beautiful. His technique is evolving towards higher quality images in a 6×6 format. I was also attracted by the photo of a king fisher and I met Kaat Stieber from The Netherlands who explained to me in details her creative process. Walking further I met Anna Riabova from Russia, already spotted before for her delicate rendition of past paintings, and I had an extensive discussion with her about current events, history, photography, art in general and much more in a short period of time. A rare encounter, in a perfect French. Finally, I enjoyed the photographs of Inna Oleff from Russia as well. All in all, this edition of Haute Photographie was exceptional, with these new discoveries, but also with the ones already seen before, some of which are worth mentioning again: Nancy Poeran, Hassan Ragab, or Yani.
