Photographer #439: Colin Delfosse

Colin Delfosse, 1981, Belgium, is a documentary photographer who studied Journalism. Together with three other photographers he founded the Out of Focus collective in 2005. As a collective (5 photographers) they focus on social issues. One of his latest projects focuses on Kazakhstan where he concentrates on the Soviet legacy in the country, still visually present. In 2010 he portrayed a large number of Congolese wrestlers and the culture around it. This series won the PDN photo annual award in 2011. Colin has traveled extensively for his strong and intimate projects. He has been to countries as China, Mali and Iraqi Kurdistan where he documented the movement of the Free Women of Kurdistan movement. Colin's work has been featured in The New York Times, Le Monde and The International Herald Tribune to name a few. The following images come from the series Polygon - Soviet Legacy in Kazakhstan, part I, Congolese Wrestlers and The PKK Amazons.

Website: www.outoffocus.be

Photographer #382: Cédric Gerbehaye

Cédric Gerbehaye, 1977, Belgium, was trained as a journalist who chose photography as his medium to tell his stories. In 2002 he started to follow the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a long-term project. He created several bodies of work in the conflict area about Hebron, Gaza and on the economic crisis in Israel, showing that a large number of Israelis today live below the poverty line due to war and the fact that the occupation of Palestinian territories costs a lot of money to the Israeli government who are therefore spending much less on social programs. Since 2007 he has been focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is where he created the images for his book Congo in Limbo, telling the story of the armed conflict that killed nearly four million people. In the eastern regions of Congo, filled with mineral resources, the situation is still very tense. One of his latest series is Land of Cush. He went to the Nuba Mounts, to the north of the demarcation line that now separates the South Sudan state and Sudan. The inhabitants, who used to fight with the southern separatists soldiers for 20 years, are now victims of aerial bombardments from the Khartoum regime as retaliation. The following images come from the stories Land of Cush - South Sudan, Congo in Limbo and Gaza: Summer Rains.

Direct link to Cedric's work: www.agencevu.com

Photographer #350: Jessica Hilltout

Jessica Hilltout, 1977, Belgium, is a documentary photographer who studied at the Art College in Blackpool, England. She has completed various overland travels for her photography. One of the first trips which resulted in the series Faces and Places was from Brussels to Mongolia and home via Africa (80.000km) in an old Jeep. In 2008 she started the project called AMEN. She visiting countries as Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Benin, Malawi and Ghana amongst others. She wanted to take a different look at the meaning of football to this continent and capture the soul of African football. She focused on the players and their clothing, their hand-made balls and the improvised goals. Along with her rolls of film she also took new footballs with her to exchange with their hand-made balls. She self-published the project as a coffee table book in 2010 and exhibited the series in South Africa and Belgium. The following images come from the series AMEN, Imperfection and Faces.

Website: www.jessicahilltout.com

Photographer #340: Xavier Delory

Xavier Delory, 1973, Belgium, is a conceptual photographer with a focus on architecture. He studied Interior Architecture, Computer Graphics / 3D and Photography. He is currently working on his series Formes Urbaines. He studies the recurrent characteristics of modern cities, with Brussels as his first field of research. The series consists of three chapters, Bare d'ilôt, Dom-ino and Façade Libre. In his series Fermé le Dimanche he questions whether commercial centres are the new temples of our society. He combined religious architectural forms with supermarkets and other stores. In Habitat he focused on the recognizable style of Belgian houses which he uses to explore the concept of protection. By eliminating windows, doors and any other openings in usual houses he pushes this to its extremes. Xavier has exhibited his work on numerous occasions throughout Belgium and France. The following images come from the series Formes Urbaines (Dom-ino), Fermé le Dimanche and Habitat.

Website: www.xavierdelory.be

Photographer #240: Franky Verdickt

Franky Verdickt, 1971, Belgium, graduated with a masters degree from the St-Lukas academy in Brussels in 2007. In his personal work he searches for the ideal society, a utopia. Even though his work shows real places and real people, there is an ironic criticism of the ideology and the search for perfection. His series Fantasma was created in the self-pronounced republic of Transdnistria, an area between Moldova and the Ukraine. It's a non existing country in which the people want to believe in their own ideas of reality. In his personal work there is a certain stillness, which is also visible in several of his documentary projects. He travels the world to places as Georgia, China and and Albania for his photographs. The following images come from the series Totem II, Fantasma and Work.

Website: www.frankyverdickt.be

Photographer #234: Gert Jochems

Gert Jochems, 1969, Belgium, first studied sociology and international relations before studying photography at the school of fine arts in Ghent. Between 2001 and 2005 he traveled to the far corners of Russia. In Siberia he documented the people in the post communist region. In 2005 the series Rus was released as a book. In Gaza Gert made compositions of three images, each time with a wall in the middle. He also focused on Dampremie, a suburb of Charleroi in Belgium, which suffers from high unemployent and poverty. Currently he is concentrating on the theme sex, not the stylized version, but the gritty amateur world of sex and the imperfect imagery. The following images come from the series about sex that is still in progress and the series Rus and Dampremie.

Website: www.gertjochems.be & www.agencevu.com

Photographer #065: Stephan Vanfleteren

Stephan Vanfleteren, Belgium, 1969, is a black and white photographer. He is well known for his portraits of musicians and other creative people, but also for his stories from around the globe, ranging from his region of origin Flandrien to various conflict zones as Afghanistan and Kosovo. His portfolio contains a large body of work showing a very distinct signature of Stephan. The following images are from his portraits, followed by the series Flandrien and Waiting for the promised land: Ethiopia.

Website: www.stephanvanfleteren.com

Photographer #015: Frederik Heyman

Frederik Heyman, 1984, Belgium, has both a masters degree in photography aswell as in graphic and illustration design. This is very clear when looking at his photographic works. He combines illustration and graphic design in his photography. He creates new worlds that look impossible, but he doesn't hide the way it's done. His pictures are like little fairy tales. The following photographs are from various personal and editorial projects.

Website: www.frederikheyman.com

Photographer #013: Marc Lagrange

Marc Lagrange, 1957 - 2015, lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Although his pictures remind us of the great works of Helmut Newton or Peter Lindbergh, Marc brings a finesse to his pictures like no other. His photographs are stylish, well composed and iconic.
Update: With sadness we have to report that Marc passed away on 25-12-2015.

Website: www.lagrange.be