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Book of the Month – One Year
Book of the Month – One Year
Geert Broertjes
November 26, 2019
Grainy, blurry, lost in a dream: the photographer's imagery is ambiguous and the meaning can often only be implied through association. The picture legend at the end of the book gives a little more information about the people portrayed and the places, but the book is deliberately composed as a fugue to the departed; and it achieves this without text.
For his pictures, Broertjes manages to produce symbolic motifs where the loss of loved ones, death and illness, reflecting the poetic power of perseverance and the will to live, are set in contrast to memories of happy, at times intimate moments. The series of pictures is not just a sharing about the death of his aunt, his grandmother and his mother, all within half a year of each other, but also about processing the separation from his girlfriend. Using analogue, raw and often very dark motifs, the photographer looks at the moods that accompanied him during this difficult time of loss. Illness and the fear of separation have actually been with him for much longer, however: his mother fought against cancer for five years, and cancer was first detected in his father twenty years go and has now returned for the third time. In addition, as though fate had not struck enough blows, the photographer himself was diagnosed with cancer. Broertjes survived a traumatic period, and photography became an effective means to achieve self-assurance. Time and again, self-portraits of the photographer are found interspersed between family pictures, landscapes and still-lifes.
The unsparing, accompanying texts offer insight into his emotional world, and, upon longer perusal, the pictures seem like a “painful hug” needed to find the way back into life: “I reflect on what illness and death can bring me and not so much about what they can take from me. This thought has evoked in me feelings of calm and strength that I never felt before.” The book can be seen as a ballad dedicated to inner strength and acceptance, a reflection upon how things in life are – not always perfect, but definitely intense and empowering. (Ulrich Rüter)
Geert Broertjes - One Year
85 pages, 55 black and white pictures, 17 x 24 cm
Schilt Publishing
The exhibition runs until December 1, 2019, at the Schilt Gallery (Peter Martensstraat 121, 1087 NA Amsterdam).
For his pictures, Broertjes manages to produce symbolic motifs where the loss of loved ones, death and illness, reflecting the poetic power of perseverance and the will to live, are set in contrast to memories of happy, at times intimate moments. The series of pictures is not just a sharing about the death of his aunt, his grandmother and his mother, all within half a year of each other, but also about processing the separation from his girlfriend. Using analogue, raw and often very dark motifs, the photographer looks at the moods that accompanied him during this difficult time of loss. Illness and the fear of separation have actually been with him for much longer, however: his mother fought against cancer for five years, and cancer was first detected in his father twenty years go and has now returned for the third time. In addition, as though fate had not struck enough blows, the photographer himself was diagnosed with cancer. Broertjes survived a traumatic period, and photography became an effective means to achieve self-assurance. Time and again, self-portraits of the photographer are found interspersed between family pictures, landscapes and still-lifes.
The unsparing, accompanying texts offer insight into his emotional world, and, upon longer perusal, the pictures seem like a “painful hug” needed to find the way back into life: “I reflect on what illness and death can bring me and not so much about what they can take from me. This thought has evoked in me feelings of calm and strength that I never felt before.” The book can be seen as a ballad dedicated to inner strength and acceptance, a reflection upon how things in life are – not always perfect, but definitely intense and empowering. (Ulrich Rüter)
Geert Broertjes - One Year
85 pages, 55 black and white pictures, 17 x 24 cm
Schilt Publishing
The exhibition runs until December 1, 2019, at the Schilt Gallery (Peter Martensstraat 121, 1087 NA Amsterdam).
ALL IMAGES ON THIS PAGE: © Geert Broertjes
Geert Broertjes+-
Geert Broertjes was born in Amstelveen in 1987, and first studied Media and Information Management before attending the Amsterdam Photo Academy from 2011 to 2013.
In 2014 he participated in a workshop with Antoine D'Agata at the Tokyo Institute of Photography, and in 2017 was nominated for the Joop Swart Masterclass. Broertjes lives and works in Amsterdam. The One Year photo book was introduced at this year's UNSEEN in Amsterdam. More
