City photographer Antwerp / 2010-2011

CITY PHOTOGRAPHER ANTWERP / 2010-11
Fifty One Fine Art Photography / ZIRKSTRAAT 20 / 2000 ANTWERPEN
26/6/2012 - 28/7/2012.

Fifty One Fine Art Photography hosts the first exhibition of the voluntary association City Photographer Antwerp. As a partner of the association the gallery ensures the artistic quality of the photographic interpretation. This summer, the first group of city photographers (2010-2011) will be in the spotlight. This group consisted of five photographers: Maarten Vanden Abeele, Patrick de Roo, Elisabeth Broekaert, Dan Zollmann and Alex Salinas.
Founded in 2010, the non-profit organization City Photographer Antwerp strives to create a collective and artistic photographic memory of the city in the long-term. Biennial the city photographers commit themselves to perpetuate their gaze on the city. They are being selected by a heterogeneous committee consisting of Antwerp delegates from various disciplines.
The concept of the city photographer is not new. The American photographer Weegee (USA, 1899-1968) is perhaps the best known example. As a photojournalist, he photographed the confrontations such as car accidents and gang murders in the city of New York in the years 40-50. Importantly, he built his oeuvre under his own management, regardless of any political ideologies. This vision is also reflected in the workings of the association whereby the city photographers capture completely autonomously and voluntarily their view of Antwerp.

Jan Yoors

JAN YOORS
FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ZIRKSTRAAT 20 / 2000 ANTWERPEN
11/5/2012 - 20/6/2012

Belgian-American artist Jan Yoors (1922-1977) was a writer, painter, photographer, filmmaker, sculptor and master of tapestry.
His work was inspired and infused by his rich life experiences - from his youth with a Gypsy Kumpania, to his imprisonment by the nazis, to his years writing about and photographing the diverse people of New York City.
Yoors his black&white photographs will be juxtaposted with his charcoal nudes drawings and his abstract watercolors.

Lara Gasparotto en solo

Expo solo de Lara Gasparotto
Stieglitz 19 / Klapdorp 2 / Antwerpen 2000
17/3/2012 - 22/4/2012

Christopher Thomas / Venice in Solitude

©Christopher Thomas

Christopher Thomas / Venice in Solitude
FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ZIRKSTRAAT 20 / 2000 ANTWERPEN
16/3/2012 - 5/5/2012

Fifty One Fine Art Photography is pleased to present “Venice in Solitude”, the second solo show of Christopher Thomas (b. 1961). This German based Photographer creates black and white images of cities in a state of rest, deserted, like the metropolis is holding its breath. In former projects the artist already photographed his hometown Munich and urban giant New York. Today he is turning his large-format Polaroid camera towards Venice, a city renowned for its history and grandeur, but notwithstanding one of the most important art centers in the world.
This new series embraces a sense of nostalgia, due to the romantic character of the images. Nevertheless, it hints at a contemporary feeling of desolateness.
The serenity and emptiness that these photographs evoke is not what we would expect of this vibrant city. By shooting before dawn, Thomas is able to reveal the essence of the city, portrayed in its purest form, free from any distraction. In addition he makes long exposures in order to delete the slightest movement or any presence of life. This gives the photographs a ghostly, uncanny character, like the artist has brought the world to a standstill. Moreover they convey, for all their apparent emptiness, a sense of commencement and guarded expectation, a feeling that corresponds with this predawn moment.
In this accumulation of unique photographs, Venice is revealed anew, the artist genuinely succeeded to open up the public spaces of the city. A place so illustrious and absorbed by its powerful history is now stripped down to its bare essence. Like a surrealist flaneur, Thomas takes the viewer on a solitary tour through Venice. So he can discover the city's many architectural splendors, the Piazza San Marco, the misty waters with empty gondolas and the beautifully lit bridges and palaces on his own pace, as if the city is his own.
During his productive career, Thomas has worked for magazines such as Geo, Merian, Stern and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin. He has also written numerous photo essays and received international awards for commercial and fine art photography. As an alternative to such commissioned works he began to make nighttime cityscapes on his own initiative. The artist felt the urge to - as he puts it - “get back to the roots”. The accompanying publication for his photographs of New York, “New York never sleeps: Photographs by Christopher Thomas”, (was awarded by the Deutcher Fotobuchpreis (German Photobook Award).
“Venice in solitude” offers a new perspective on a grand city, which is reduced and dismantled to the essential elements of its world famous architecture. Nevertheless it shows the city as it was intended to be: a brilliantly planned, poetic haven of tranquility.

The accompanying book “Venice in Solitude” will be available at the gallery.

For more impressions, visit the trailor on youtube.

Finissage / Where they met / Yamamoto Masao / Arpais du bois

©ARPAÏS du bois and YAMAMOTO Masao | installation view

'where they met' / Yamamoto Masao / Arpaïs du bois / FINISSAGE
FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ZIRKSTRAAT 20 / 2000 ANTWERPEN
10/3/2012 14:00-18:00

Simon Norfolk / Imaging History

Simon Norfolk Lecture
FotoMuseum (Musée de la Photo) / Waalse Kaai 47 / 2000 Anvers
1/3/2012 - 20:00

A lecture In the context of the Exhibition: "Imaging History" at FOMU
Since publication of “Afghanistan: chronotopia", showing all the evidence of decades of destruction of Afghanistan in 2002, Norfolk has aimed to uncover the underlying realities of armed conflict in a many-angled and innovative approach: www.simonnorfolk.com
In 2010, Norfolk revisited Afghanistan, with the intention of entering into a kind of posthumous collaborative project with John Burke, the first known photographer of the Kabul area, who was on location during the Second Anglo-Afghan War of 1878/81. While Burke's work may be considered rediscovered and secured in this of Norfolk's most recent publications (Burke+Norfolk, Dewi Lewis), Norfolk's own images and text shall serve to drive home some central observations on the nature of Western involvement in the region in the eleventh year of the current Afghan war.
Simon Norfolk, most recently, has seen the World Press Award and the Sony Award added to his other prestigious prizes.

Imaging History / Attie, Mann, Michiels, Norfolk, Simon, Vandermeulen, Veys

Imaging History : Shimon Attie, Sally Mann, Bart Michiels, Simon Norfolk, Taryn Simon, Bruno Vandermeulen and Danny Veys
FotoMuseum (Musée de la Photo) / Waalse Kaai 47 / 2000 Anvers
17/02/12 - 03/06/12

Beyond style

BEYOND STYLE
FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ZIRKSTRAAT 20 / 2000 ANTWERPEN
9/12/2011 - 21/1/2012

"Style is elusive and indefinable. It knows no boundaries and is neither bounded to time nor to space. Style is more than fashion, more than following a transitory trend. On the contrary, it is possible to capture a certain style-feeling in a photograph. Beyond Style, the new exhibition of Fifty One Fine Art Photography, presents a panoramic view on the term “style” with a wide range of pictures.
Various contrasts emerge in the exhibition. Anonymous African studio photos are presented next to world famous icons such as Brigitte Bardot and Paul Newman, two photographs of the renowned English photographer Terry O’Neill. Well-known images of influential fashion photographers like William Klein and Frank Horvat are displayed as well. There is no hierarchy, because the essence of these photos is identical: the portrayed tries to show his personality to the viewer. Poses and facial expressions are universal.
The oeuvre of Jacques-Henri Lartigue is very versatile. Besides his fascination with movement and the quest to capture the dynamics of car racings and airplanes in photographs, elegant portraits are also a constant throughout his photographic career. In Beyond Style his muses Florette Ormea and René Perle are shown, respectively his wife and his mistress. A similar sophistication and flair can be found in “Hat with rose”, a portrait of the Italian model Isabella Albonico by Irving Penn.
Compare the vintage and the recent portraits of Malian photographer Malick Sidibé. His studio photos from the sixties and seventies characterize the post-colonial Bamako community. He portrays the inhabitants at their best, in robes with vivid ethnic prints and with remarkable attributes. The series he made for The New York Times Magazine in 2009, shows the same models in a similar setting, but wearing the designs of Dries Van Noten, Marc Jacobs and Miuccia Prada. The aura of the portrayed hardly differs.
Fashion and style go hand in hand, but are certainly no synonyms. This is also reflected in the portraits of Jacques Sonck. The Belgian photographer chooses expressive and extravert models, who stand out by their exceptional attitude. Although Sonck never had the intention to make fashion photos, his images would easily fit in an avant-garde magazine. The link with the legendary American photographer Diane Arbus who is best known for her photographs of eccentrics, is not remote. Her portrait of notable couturier Madame Alix Gres for Harper’s Bazaar corresponds perfectly with the broad context of Beyond Style. The stately portrait of fashion designer Christian Dior by Emile Savitry is also exhibited.
Fifty One Fine Art Photography creates with Beyond Style a new context and takes all those images from their obvious framework. The link between the different photos may not seem that evident, but their common character is impossible to ignore. The charismatic presence that defines the subject, is always in focus.
Beyond Style with pictures of among others Diane Arbus, Irving Penn, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Frank Horvat, William Klein, Jacques Sonck, Emile Savitry, Claude Gassian, Saul Leiter, Daido Moriyama, Terry O’neill and Malick Sidibé."

Antwerp / ARTA / Art Weekends 2011

Antwerp / ARTA / Art Weekends 2011
Stieglitz19 / Klapdorp 2 / 2000 Antwerpen
25/26/27-11-2012 et 2/3/4-12/2011

Rebekka Vanderhaeghen / The Dark Side

Rebekka Vanderhaeghen / The Dark Side
KR-line, ExtrA / Museumstraat 31 / 2000 Antwerpen
25/11/2011 - 23/12/2011

Tim van den Oudenhoven / Disparitions

Tim van den Oudenhoven / The dark side / Disparitions
KR-line, ExtrA / Museumstraat 31 / 2000 Antwerpen
21/10/2011 - 19/11/2011

"La série "disparitions" présente des constructions universelles en béton. Située dans un cadre urbain non spécifié, enveloppée d'un noir intense et imprimée sur la surface fragile et légère d'un papier journal, cette série veut mettre en évidence la présence oubliée de ces constructions.
Présenté comme des cathédrales de la modernité dans un paysage aussi bien quotidien qu'étrange, le spectateur est invité à plonger dans cet univers où toute perte d'orientation est centrale.
L'horizon disparu dans le noir infini du béton, toute présence humaine introuvable, il ne reste que les cicatrices architecturales des bâtiments qui petit à petit se font envahir par le noir absolu."

Chinese Spring

Nouvelle adresse: Stieglitz19 / Klapdorp 2 / Antwerpen 2000
22/9/2011 - 30/10/2011

Chinese spring

Nouvelle adresse: Stieglitz19 / Klapdorp 2 / Antwerpen 2000
22/9/2011 - 30/10/2011

Saul Leiter / unpublished photographs and works on paper

©Saul Leiter


Saul Leiter / unpublished photographs and works on paper
FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ZIRKSTRAAT 20 / 2000 ANTWERPEN
9/9/2011 - 29/10/2011

Stieglitz 19 demenage

Chinese Spring & nouvelle adresse pour Stieglitz 19
Stieglitz19 / Klapdorp 2 / 2000 Antwerpen
A partir du 22/9/2011

Elke Boon / Insight

Elinor Carucci, Elke Andreas Boon, Alexandra Cool, Jacques Sonck / Insight
FotoMuseum (Musée de la Photo) / Waalse Kaai 47 / 2000 Anvers
24/6/2011 - 25/9/2011

No title, no theme / 11eme anniversaire de 51 fine art photography

“NO TITLE, NO THEME”
FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ZIRKSTRAAT 20 / 2000 ANTWERPEN
28/6/2011 - 30/7/2011

FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY CELEBRATES ELEVEN YEARS!

Fifty One Fine Art Photography goes random with the summer exhibition No Title No Theme for its 11th birthday. No Title No Theme is a dialogue between various photographic approaches, which brings the viewer into an unexpected visual display.
The exhibition is a group show of artists represented by the gallery such as Elinor Carucci, William Klein, Michael Wolf, Kerry Skarbakka, Emile Savitry, Kyungwoo Chun, Deanna Templeton, Jan Yoors, Alvin Booth, Adama Kouyaté, Frank Horvat, Christopher Thomas and many more.
Elinor Carucci will be also participating in the show Insight in the Fotomuseum in Antwerp from June 24 until September 25.
The gallery will be closed in August.
The new season will start on September 8 with an exhibition of photographies and drawings by Saul Leiter.

Carucci, Boon, Cool, Sonck / Insight

Elinor Carucci, Elke Andreas Boon, Alexandra Cool, Jacques Sonck / Insight
FotoMuseum (Musée de la Photo) / Waalse Kaai 47 / 2000 Anvers
24/6/2011 - 25/9/2011

Jimmy Kets / Shot in Flanders

Jimmy Kets / Shot in Flanders
Stieglitz 19 / Dries Roelens / Arthur Goemaerelei 19 / 2018 Antwerpen
5/5/2011 - 10/6/2011

Seydou Keita a Anvers

SEYDOU KEÏTA@FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY
29/4/2011 - 11/6/2011
FIFTY ONE FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ZIRKSTRAAT 20 / 2000 ANTWERPEN

"Fifty One Fine Art Photography is proud to present a solo show of the Malian photographer Seydou Keïta (1921-2001). The significance of his exquisite portrait photography changed from being a personal portrayal to a masterpiece of art.
In the period that Seydou Keïta opened his studio in Bamako in 1948, owning a portrait photograph became a symbol of modernity of the middle class. At that time Keïta didn’t consider himself as an artist. Upon the growing requests by his clients Keïta composed a representation of his customers, influenced by the French style, by using Western outfits, accessories and the careful chosen position of his models.
Until today, Keïta’s photographs travel the world and are exhibited in numerous museums and art galleries. His work has gained a completely different status and has been recognized as artwork by the Western market.
Through his black & white photographs Seydou Keïta registers the colourful social life in Bamako between 1948 and 1977. His portraiture not only has a historical/cultural value of a place in time, but also renewed the way the Western art world looks at portrait photography.
In 2001 Seydou Keïta passed away. Ten years later Fifty One Fine Art Photography wants to celebrate the legacy of this self-taught photographer who is recognized as the father of African photography and considered to be one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century."