© Dieter Debruyne, ‘Naked bxl’ from the series ‘Silent Witnesses’, 2014

Let’s start talking about your experience in Urbanautica. Since September 2014  you have been head of Urbanautica Belgium, an exemplary model that has now been taken up in other countries. Can you tell us about this experience? What are the ideas and projects for the future?

Dieter Debruyne (DD): First of all, I have to say I was rather surprised when you asked me to host the Belgian page for Urbanautica. (It’s still a mystery to me and we still have to talk about this some time.) But, I felt honored by this opportunity and I immediately grabbed it with both hands. I remember that my first interview with Peter Waterschoot was on a Sunday evening. Peter answered me within the hour. The second interview with Karin Borghouts was one you suggested to me and since then things are rolling along nicely. After a couple of interviews I quickly realized I couldn’t handle it alone. I’m more of a photographer with a healthy sense of curiosity for fellow artists than I am a writer or journalist. 
Peter Waterschoot was the first I’ve contacted to help me out. I knew his English and writing skills are above mediocre and his knowledge of the Belgian art-scene and love for art-books also made him the ideal colleague for the book review section of Urbanautica. I also have to mention the job done by Sylvie de Weze for taking care of the agenda on the Belgian page and let us not forget David Marlé for his contributions and suggestions. And there’s also some new blood in town; Lina Manousogianakki. I hope to meet her soon in Brussels.

Urbanautica Portfolio Review at Zebrastraat, Ghent, 2014

For me Urbanautica is an opportunity to give coverage to lesser-known photographers, to map the Belgian scene and to expand this network. I still have a long list of artists who I want to cover. But, my approach will be different in the future. I will still use the same Q&A but also try to get some background on the artist. With these answers and the extra background info I want to delve deeper into the body of work with personalized questions. The current pace of interviews will be slower, but they will be more interesting. I will start using this approach as soon as our new website is launched by end of the year. Urbanautica isn’t only a website anymore. There’s a lot of things happening that aren’t visible on the web yet. Urbanautica wants to be more than a digital platform in the future. We already did a first testrun in June with the Belgian portfolio review. In Arles was the launch of Urbanautica Collections in collaboration with L’Artiere Edizionne… and Urbanautica will be present on Unseen in Amsterdam.

You have accomplished many meetings and interviews in recent months to deepen the photographic scene in Belgium. What are your personal impressions?

DD: I’m still trying to grasp and map the Belgian scene as objectively as I can. It’s an impossible job, but very instructive. It would be easy to just cover the well-known photographers, like Dirk Braeckman or Geert Goiris or Carl de Keyzer and so on… It’s not that I ignore them, and I will interview them eventually. For me personally it’s more about the young and emerging photographers. However, to boost the website I will occasionally give coverage to the established.

It would be perfect to have different editors in different cities in Belgium.  For example, someone who only concentrates on Antwerp or Brussels. 
This is at the same time an open call to fellow artists who want to contribute to Urbanautica. It’s totally voluntary but stress-free and a chance to be part of a large and international network.

Photography is a very rich field of observation and a constantly evolving language. What are your thoughts on this important topic?

DD: I think everybody has to embrace the possibilities that digital photography is giving us. Like the Cubists (Picasso, Duchamp, …) turned the world of painting upside down; digital photography will do the same. The nostalgic feeling of black and white photography is not a thing that we should be hanging on to for decades to come. There’s a counter-movement of analogue photography which I appreciate, but for me it belongs to the past. Everything comes in waves in the art-world. There is no such thing as contemporary art. Art in the now is inevitably fed by the past. This holds true for photography, too! 

© Dieter Debruyne from the series ‘Spaziale’, 2006

Tell us about your educational background. Where did you study? How was your educational experience? What were the courses, the teachers, the materials that have influenced your path?

DD: I don’t have a typical background and I took some breaks during my education. I went to both Flemish Royal Academies. My first year was in Ghent and at that time I was more interested in music. After that year I moved from Ghent to Antwerp. It was there that I fell in love with the 4/5 inch format. We immediately had a studio assignment for a whole semester with a large format camera,whereas in Ghent the emphasis was all on 35mm documentary photography and printing techniques.

I stayed in Antwerp for three years but then decided to go back to the Royal academy of Ghent, as I was living there already and the courses are better. In between that change I spent a few years outside of school/the education system, though. That was also the time when digital photography evolved to the first real DSLR’s. I bought myself a Nikon d70 and started experimenting with it. 

In that first year back in Ghent, we had an assignment around the concept ‘space’ which was for me more a continuation of what I learned in Antwerp. I experimented by taking pictures during the night for an uncanny feeling. I changed my photographic work back to black and white photography in stark contrast with Antwerp which accented colour photography. You’ll find the synthesis of these two courses in my portfolio: Colour photography, 4/5 inch format and a sole interest in spaces. 

© Dieter Debruyne from the series ‘Spaziale’, 2006

We often speak of the contrast between analog and digital. But perhaps the real thing is the development of social networks and how they affect the production of the images, and their consumption. What is your opinion on the merits [of social networking]?

DD: It has made it easier to show and share your work but there is also an abundance of pictures shown. Sometimes I wonder why I have to watch an image. There are a lot of different apps on the web for photographers. For me it’s not easy to track all those different ways of showing. So I made it easy and I stay with Facebook, Tumblr and Flickr. These three I use for different purposes. But hey, everyone is free to use the web and the apps as they please. And that’s a good thing. I limit myself in order not be in front of the screen all the time. 

A second benefit about digital photography is that I don’t have to throw my chemicals down the drain anymore. 

Your personal work, through which you have photographed several public buildings in some ways recalls the reflections on the role of institutions, public space, forms of government. Tell us about this?

DD: I have to say what I photograph now is a continuation of ‘Exit Through The Entrance’. During this work where I photographed public spaces, I would sometimes open a closed door where I encountered a typical meeting room. You know these kind of rooms with an enormous table and microphones, expensive artwork on the walls and so on… At that moment I felt a sense of power and serious decision-making. ‘EttE’ was also more a stylistic exercise on colour and graphics: fine-tuning my photography. 

© Dieter Debruyne, ‘U.F.O.’ from the series ‘Transparent Dreams’, 2015

After this I concentrated on content and that’s what I’m still occupied with. The working title is ‘Stille getuigen’ (Silent Witnesses). It’s all about that uncanny feeling I have described before. My search leads me to all sorts of buildings, e.g. courts, catholic institutions, business clubs… There are some things that strike me in those interiors. They were made to make people feel small and to bow and kneel for the men in power. Also symmetry; it strikes me that the interiors are mostly arranged symmetrical. Maybe for a sense of tranquility and peace. It’s not easy for me to make interesting compositions with this kind of symmetry. Sometimes I acknowledge it and other times I try to break the symmetry and make a picture that, composition-wise, is not as easy to look at.

© Dieter Debruyne, ‘Spiegelzaal’ from the series ‘Silent Witnesses’, 2013

© Dieter Debruyne, ‘Ballroom’ from the series ‘Silent Witnesses’, 2014

When interviewing photographers on Urbanautica we often ask to suggest books or significant exhibitions. Do you have some highlights to share with our readers?

1. ‘Artist book The house’, 2014, by Karin Borghouts
The House (of my childhood burned down and I went in to take pictures)
2. ‘Belgian Autumn’, 2015, by Jan Rosseel
3. ‘Pandora’s Camera (photgr@phy after photography)’, 2014, by Joan Fontcuberta
4. ‘An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar’, 2008, by Taryn Simon
5. ‘Geert Goiris’, FOAM, Amsterdam, 2015

Suggestions:

- ‘James Turrel’ in De Pont, Tilburg, 2015 
- ‘Jan Rosseel’, FOMU, Antwerp 2015

Photographically speaking what are your future plans?

DD: I’m still taking pictures of interiors, but a second chapter is coming up and that’s going to deal with the same subject, but in new, glass constructions only. 
I’ll keep on archiving and indexing those interiors until I have a stock to choose from to make and to publish a book. Some exhibitions are scheduled and there’s my work for Urbanautica of course!!

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LINKS 
Dieter Debruyne 
Belgium