We went to Hull to visit the Hull International Photography Festival or Hipphotofest. I saw some amazing work and wanted to share my favorites in this blog.
Photo Festival day
Wednesday 28th of October we went to Hull with some of the people of the photography module. There were four areas inside the Princes Quay shopping centre with eight exhibitions, two at the Central Library, one at Kardomah 94, two at the St Mary’s Church and one at the Red Gallery. Because of the short timespan we couldn’t see the exhibitions at the Library but we covered most of it that day. These are my favorite photographers:
Frieke Janssens – Dianas
Frieke Janssens was born in Bruges, Belgium, in 1980. after starting with evening classes in photography at an age of 15, she skipped the pilot or police on a horse option, photography was her future. While studying photography at Sint-Lukas Brussels she was mainly interested in lifestyle, sociology and stereotypes, because she felt like she was living in two worlds. Now she’s a Brussels-based photographer. After graduating in 2002, Frieke immediately started working as a photographer, where she tries to tell a story that’s fascinating and mostly avoids the clichés, or she uses them very consciously. — hipphotofest.com
Her photographs are absolute my all time favorite. Her photographs are something to think about, why did she created these, what’s the story behind it. This series is called Dianas and Frieke explains it as follows:
DIANAS, A SERIES ABOUT SINGLE WOMEN Having built a solid reputation in staged, concept-driven photography, in her new series Frieke Janssens questions the feeling of being a single woman and the search for a lover as a kind of hunting. By introducing the theme of Diana, the ancient Roman goddess of the moon and patroness of hunting and virginity, the photographer engaged a string of luscious top models to pose for her as Dianas. All of the models are distinctly feminine and tall referring to the height of Diana’s stature. They carry typical attributes – be it a lunar crown, a wood stock air rifle, a robust bow, a mighty, dreadful eagle or a herd of hounds. The huntresses are often adorned with leather boots, exquisite garments and eye-catching jewelry made of feathers. The women are pictured in the silence of the early, misty morning, surrounded by a woodland pond or grass, reed and wild plants. — Frieke Janssens
This type of photography interests me for a long time. Creating an image that asks for questions but also creating a story with photographs. This a serie and with that she is telling a story of multiple women. They’re presented as strong, independent and capable of doing everything. She is a true inspiration for me because of that.
Verity Harr – Lumen
Verity Harr is a Hull based photographic artist and full time photography lecturer whose work explores how the ordinary can be transformed into moments of extraordinary through sublime forces that engage the viewer through aesthetics and experience. — hipphotofest.com
This work of Verity Harr is also amazing. By using a very simple object and place that in the sunlight during sunset/sunrise, you get this amazing and surreal images. The way of presenting this images also got my attention, the use of an aluminium/glas plate created a shimmering on to the photograph which gave it more dept.
This project Lumen, investigates how light and photography have the power to transform ordinary and familiar subject matter and materials into moments of sublime experience by challenging our perceptions. Light has the power to transform and transfix; photography is a medium that captures light; plastic is a material that holds light, and light itself is our connection to the beginnings of existence. — hipphotofest.com
Because the photos are “simple” I really like them. Less is more they say, in this case it’s definitely true. These two photographers stole my heart with their work. The other exhibitions were also very interesting but they weren’t as good as these two, in my opinion. I enjoyed this day and got inspired by these beautiful works.
