Eddy Verloes
‘Photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place.’
Glad to feature an interview with Eddy Verloes, a street photographer based in Belgium.
I discovered his work through his multi-awarded series ‘Losing our minds’ and I was really impressed by how he manages to capture movement and stillness at the same time.
For Travelling Light Club, he is sharing his photographic journey, what inspires him and the favourite photos in his portfolio.
Mother, why are we living?
Eddy Verloes © All Rights Reserved.
Vincent Dupont-Blackshaw: How did you get into photography?
Eddy Verloes: I am a Belgian photographer and started with photography about 8 years ago after I stopped as organizer of a big musical event “Leuven Plaza Proms” in Belgium. I studied literature, philosophy and arts at the University of Louvain (Belgium) and the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg i.B. (Germany). I published four books: ‘No time to Verloes’ (2015), 'Cuba libre’ (2016), ‘Zeezuchten’ (2020) and ‘Losing Our Minds/Buiten zinnen’ (2021).
V.D.B.: In a world where everyone is taking pictures all the time, do you remember the first time you felt like a photographer?
E.V.: The first time I felt like a photographer was two years ago when I took a series of ultra-Orthodox Jews on the Belgian coast who enjoyed their freedom in an unorthodox way in the storm (of their lives) and escaped the lockdown. This series is traveling around the world for more than a year.
Losing our minds
Eddy_Verloes © All Rights Reserved.
V.D.B.: Is there a photographer whose work you particularly appreciate?
E.V.: I really like the work of many photographers, and in some of them I see similarities to my style of photographing, especially when they have a kind of humour in their photographs. Martin Parr is one of my idols in street photography. He has been photographing beach life over many decades and in many countries. One of the reasons I love his work so much is that his photographs have strong statements about society – and always has a certain viewpoint or critique. Many of his photographs are funny, interesting, or sometimes downright depressing. He interjects his own opinion and thought into his photographs, shows how he sees the world – and challenges us to see the world differently as well. When looking at Martin Parr’s photography, the viewer is often unsure whether to laugh or to cry. He finds the extraordinary in the ordinary. In some of my photos I found an inspiration in him.
Other photographers I like very much are: Harry Gruyaert and the surrealism of his work. I love his book “Roots” about the banality of the beautiful, the beauty of ugliness of … Belgium. Stefan Vanfleteren with his book “Belgicum” which is a subjective photographic documentary about Belgium in black & white. Josef Koudelka because of his unusual point of view, the magic of street photography of Saul Leiter, the importance of composition in the work of Martine Franck, the photographs of Jehsong Baak which are a reflection of his travels and a testimony of his incisive eye. His velvety ink-like images bring to mind artists such as Bill Brandt and Man Ray where the night, the dark and the light are surrounded by a symbolist air.
My eternal love
Eddy Verloes © All Rights Reserved.
V.D.B.: How do you define your work?
E.V.: To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. You just have to care about what’s around you and have a concern for humanity and the human comedy. First rule to be a photographer, you have to be invisible. I don’t need to have any kind of relationship with my subject and I don’t need to prepare my locations. I do a lot of street photography. The essence of street photography is documenting everyday life and society on the streets. It’s a genre of photography usually done candidly without permission and without the subject’s knowledge. The most spontaneous photos are for me the most interesting. The important thing with street photography is to have fun and enjoy going out with your camera. My goal is to capture emotion, humanity and sometimes depict a person’s character. Perception and intuition are the most important factors. Perception requires a creative eye for detail. Intuition is immediate and is not duty-bound to any attentive reasoning. These two factors are combined to create the “decisive moment”, an amazing process that takes your images to the next level. To me, the greatest moments in life are the ones right in front of you. I agree with Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of my favorites, who says that photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event.
V.D.B.: What equipment do you use?
E.V.: I bought a Nikon D810 six years ago and I use most of the time the Nikon lens 24-70 mm f/2.8 and sometimes a 70-200mm f/2.8. Lightroom is my favourite editing software for converting my images to B&W.
V.D.B.: What are your three favourite photos in your portfolio?
V.D.B.: What do you want viewers to take away from your work?
E.V.: Through my photos, I try to make time stand still and make us consider the question of how long we will still be able to enjoy our coasts. My photographs confronts us with the insignificance - sometimes even pathos - of man in nature, where he is only a spot in the great whole but, at the same time, raise a gentle or even broad smile on our faces.
What, in fact, are we doing here? How do we fritter away our time on this planet? We race past ourselves all year round only to make up the "lost time" in one or another paradise. In some of my photos, I expose the person both literally and figuratively, not to hold him up to ridicule, but rather to show how he essentially is. You will often find in my photos a lonely runner, a cyclist or a man walking (with or without dog) who may bring us closer to understanding that the time we spend here is actually no more than a grain of sand in the desert.
The only possible solution to survive is to connect with each other and with the planet. GET CONNECTED !!! Because we are one. One world. One consciousness. That is the only way we can survive. Working together and coming as one.
To me, the sea is the most suitable place for reflection/connection. There, you see the human being in its purest form. The sea and humor create freedom and are, in a manner of photography, inseparably bound with who I am.
Get connected
Eddy Verloes © All Rights Reserved.
V.D.B.: What are you working on at the moment? What is your next project?
EV.: I am currently working on a new project on themes such as vulnerability, connectedness, melancholy and hope. Based on thirty of my photos, the world renowned pianist-composer Jef Neve has created a new composition and the Flemish poet Geert Jan Beeckman has written thirty poems.
The result of this work will be a photo and poem book + CD called ‘ ‘Earthlings/Aardelingen’. It will be out in December 2022.
I also work on a parallel project in which clients, patients and employees of a psychiatric institution are inspired by my photos to make their own creative works.
For more information on Eddy Verloes's work, you can visit his website