RUUD VAN EMPEL

Introduction by the Festival:

The selection for 2017 includes world famous photographers as well as young talents emerging on the Belgian and European artistic scene: between 15 and 20 artists for some 200 photographs on display. In addition this year, PhotoBrussels Festival has invited photography students from La Cambre and the Antwerp Fine Arts Academy to display their work on portraits, a thought process inspired by their professors who will give a conference open to the public on this occasion. To radiate all over Brussels, PhotoBrussels Festival has integrated 5 galleries and cultural centres in the Festival … of portraits

Ruud van Empel: Born in 1958, Breda, Netherlands. Lives and works in Amsterdam. After graduating in graphic design from the Academie St. Joost, van Empel worked briefly as a designer and later as a creative designer specialising in theatre décor. In 1995 van Empel made the transition from stage to staged photography, when he presented his first photographic project entitled ‘The Office’, a series of portraits showing various individuals in workplaces that van Empel had constructed. This initiated the digital collage work for which he would later become known.

Ruud van Empel is one of the most innovative and influential contemporary photographers working today. His pioneering techniques have completely changed the face of digital photography. Using a vast library of digital body parts, fabrics and foliage, van Empel creates dream-like photographic utopias, where nothing is exactly as it seems.