Untitled. From the series 'I am about to call it a day'
DEPOORTER, Bieke
Written on the back of this work is: “By asking people I accidentally meet on the street to spend the night in their home, I often enter in the intimacy of people’s lives. I like to photograph the moment when the night falls and people return to their homes, close their doors and put their nightwear on. In between two days, when no one is looking, there is a little moment where the facade falls away.
I find it very difficult to choose my most 'intimate photograph', because I experienced so many. People often shared their bed with me; I fell asleep while children and mamas were holding me tight, in a single-bed next to a very old Mexican woman who prayed for my family in the middle of the night. People invited me into Russian saunas and into American hot-tubs and when I was welcomed by an old couple in Bosnia, the man of the family died that night.
But after consideration, I would like to share a photograph with you that is part of my book I am about to call it a day. While being together in …. 's bedroom and after photographing her, I realized something important. Photography is about sharing, it is a conversation that goes in two directions. It was not only me that observed her, but through me, she looked at herself. After a long time together in her bedroom and after this picture was taken, the woman stood up in her white night dress, crying intensely; she gave me a long hug and went to sleep.” — Bieke Depoorter
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