The offering at Hungry Eye Fair was so rich that I cannot possibly name and review all the participants. While browsing the ample aisles, I came across several gems, among them the work of four women about womanhood: Audrey Paques, Julie Attalah, Bette Bijleveld and Nadine Reulings. I also spent more time with Mirjam Letsch and Michel Stoffel, whose work particularly caught my attention.
Audrey Paques explores, in her own words, what lies beneath the surface: feelings, identity and the way we perceive ourselves and the world. Through blur, movement, layers and light, she creates images that feel more like memories than records of reality, inviting the viewer to slow down, feel and recognise something of themselves. Julie Attalah is a promising young photographer from France. She explores the beauty and sensuality of womanhood through intimate photographs where natural light meets physical presence and emotion. Her series Lust celebrates precisely that feeling. Bette Bijleveld’s Aligned series is about finding connection, something we all seek, in one way or another. Nadine Reulings is also interested in what can be felt before it is put into words, using photography to explore that territory. I did not like everything she displayed, but I was fascinated by one particular image: a blurred dancer seemingly dissolving into the background. Incredible.
I spent a little more time with Mirjam Letsch, who had much to tell about her current project The Sea Rags, centred on pieces of clothing left behind on the beaches of Zanzibar, Africa. She also told me about an earlier project photographing bakers around the world. I wish I had seen an exhibition of that work too.
And then there was Michel Stoffel. Tucked away in a quieter corner, his beautifully lit, highly detailed flowers almost stole the show from the entire exhibition. They are the real stars, admired by their creator, who goes the extra mile to take care of them while, in a way, “torturing” them for hours with his camera through his painstaking photographic technique. The result is stunning: an extraordinarily detailed representation of pure beauty in its rawest expression.
