STAN magazine: behind the pictures | Michel
2021. STAN creates a magazine, for the first time ever. You know, one of those booklets with text and illustrations and – you’ve guessed it – photographs. We asked five student-photographers to provide visuals for our magazine, each with their unique style and vision. The incredible result of this collaboration can now be seen in the official STAN magazine, but how did those pictures come into existence? STAN found out for you. This week we interviewed Michel, a recently graduated photographer.
Night shots under curfew
For STAN magazine I photographed the Antwerp by Night-series, which was harder than I thought it would be. Due to the pandemic I was limited by the curfew and because the restaurants stayed closed in that period, lights shut off early in the evening. As a photographer I feel like I work more intuitively at night than during the day: there’s no sunlight so you have to be much more creative with light sources. You also focus more on people and what’s happening around you.
When I went out to shoot pictures for this series, I tried to avoid the typical Antwerp clichés (like the cathedral) as much as possible. Because of the curfew I combined new shots with archive pictures that originally didn’t have a purpose, but now found their context as a part of this project.
As a photographer I feel like I work more intuitively at night than during the day: there’s no sunlight so you have to be much more creative with light sources.
Tourist in my hometown
As a photographer, I sometimes find it difficult to make pictures in my hometown. You get so used to that environment that everything becomes very banal. After my internship in China I changed my mind about that. In China, everything is so vastly different from Belgium. When I got back, I suddenly started noticing these details in the city that I never bothered with before.
What I find so interesting about Antwerp and Belgium as a whole is that we have a lot of architectural freedom compared to, say, The Netherlands. For the most part you get to decide for yourself what you want your space in the city to look like and because of that, odd juxtapositions between different buildings come into being.
In China, everything is so vastly different from Belgium. When I got back, I suddenly started noticing these details in the city that I never bothered with before.
