About my photography hobby
I first discovered
photography when I was 14, playing with my elder sister's new Nikkormat
and printing black and white shots in the lab we had
installed
in the basement of our house.
I further developed this art as an engineering student in Lausanne, where I
discovered transparencies and the magic colors that appeared at sunset.
I was particularly interested in long exposures and enhanced many shots
with fill-flashes and by using complementary color filters. I pursued
these experiments in Africa, where I worked on oil rigs for four years.
Then I moved to Houston, Tx. I became best friend with
George O. Jackson Jr, a brilliant Tex-Mex photographer who
had two main passions:
shooting Houston skyline from his 24th floor balcony overlooking
the whole city, and photographing Indian religious
ceremonies in Mexico and Guatemala (see his website). During my spare time as a R&D
engineer, we went together on many photography sessions, cruising downtown at sunset to capture the reflections
of the last glows of light on the skyscrapers. Our photos were
published
in several books and magazines. I
also went
on several occasion with George O. Jackson in Central America, mainly around
Easter or the Day of the Deads, to capture the Indian villagers
in their intense traditional ceremonies (hopefully, these pictures will be published some day on this website).
In 1986, French composer Jean-Michel Jarre organized a gigantic
concert-show for the celebration of Texas bicentenary.
He transformed Houston's
skyline in a support for probably the biggest light-show ever;
it was attended by over half a million
people. George O.
and I had selected
well in advance the best location to shoot this event.
After the
concert, Jean-Michel saw our pictures and liked them. He
then invited
us to shoot his following mega-concerts, notably the one in Lyon
(for the visit of the Pope in 1987) and the one in Paris
La Défense
(for the 14th of July 1990). Our photos were distributed by French
image bank
SIPA and published in several of Jean-Michel Jarre's books and
records. See my photos of Jean-Michel Jarre's concerts...
In Houston, I also discovered scuba diving, passed the
Padi certification and bought a Nikonos V.
It was the beginning of a passion and...
a long learning experience. Indeed, underwater photography has
nothing to do with land photography, especially with a
primitive cameras such
as my Nikonos. Later, I bought an Ikelite housing for my Nikon 90
and managed
to produce better shots, then in 2006 a Hugyphot housing for my Nikon 200... see some of my underwater photos on www.scuba-photos.net.
When I left Houston in 1987, I was represented by Houston's
Kauffman Galleries, which sold my "Houston
Photographism" portfolio. I also became a contributing photographer
for the New York image bank Four by Five (now SuperStock,
based in Jacksonville, FL).
Back to Brussels after 15 years away from my home town, I realized
how dull the Belgian skies are, and stopped shooting on daily basis.
I still carry my camera on my frequent travels - both professional
and private - and do a few photographic reportages on my spare time.
In 2001, I founded GreenFacts,
an independent non-profit organization publishing on-line faithful
summaries of complex scientific documents on environment and health
topics on GreenFacts.org. In 2008, I left GreenFacts to devote myself to battery electric vehicles, which to me are undoubtedly the future. I founded the Going-Electric, the Association for Electric Vehicles in Europe, which was lobbying for their promotion towards European Institutions. I also joined Green Mobil, a Belgian company that imported and distributed REVA electric cars in Belgium till the end of 2009. I left my Electric Vehicle activities in 2012 take a sabbatical and work on a new long-term project.
As a side activity, I founded in 2000 the Clockarium
Museum in Brussels, a unique museum dedicated
to ceramic mantel clocks. Finally, I am now the happy daddy of three
delicious daughters. These new responsibilities leave me less time
for my
hobbies.
In 2010 however, I discovered gigapixel photography and shot gigapixel panoramas of the amazing view I had from my office, located on the top floor of the then tallest appartment building in Belgium - see them at MagiView.com.
I also can't resist to an occasional photographing trip.
Notably in 2013, I went Burning Man with George O. and another photographer friend and shot over 7 500 photos of this "out-of-this-world festival of everything" (see a selection of my Burning Man 2013 photos). I returned in 2016, after being invited by the Burning Man organization to shoot the event as a member of its DocTeam (see a selection of my Burning Man 2016 photos).
Equipment
I have always used Nikon equipment, because of its lasting compatibility and of the high quality of its lenses. I used to essentially shoot slide film, mainly Kodacolor 25 and Fudjichrome Velvia and Provia.
In 2003, I bought a Nikon
Coolpix 5700, then a Nikon
D70 which
definitively switched
me
to digital
photography. Then I used a Nikon D200, then D300, then D7000, and now a Nikon D800E and a D750 for traveling.
I like
reworking
my
photos on the
computer and publishing them on-line, to share with you on these pages...
Enjoy them!
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