31-03-2023

Dutch Design Daily

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Peter Gerritsen www.peter-gerritsen.com

Giving meaning to the meaningless

By 31-03-2023

Nominee DuPho. SO Award 2023

“My images, though by no means directed, I see as fabricated, contrived, but they don’t easily reveal that. I think if you were to “turn it on” very much with e.g. photoshop edits or otherwise heavy image manipulation, the viewer would be more likely to recognize the non-documentary character. My goal is precisely to give meaning to the, (not staged!) superficially viewed, meaningless by touching it with my (photographic) gaze and working with as modest means as possible. Tonality, color and design are often gray rather than colorful. The meaning I suggest could be described as space or absence, or rather the presence of the unknowable and invisible. Made visible by the tangible that is right next to it, or marks the boundary between solid and liquid. Sometimes I do this literally, by framing and emphasizing space and depth in an image, sometimes also by the suggestion of an abstract meaning evoked by a subtle action in the image or by an arrangement of objects referring to something else.

The tension that arises between documentary and ‘made’ or subjective is very important to me.

My field of work is always the (big) city. Inevitably I find in it man as builder and maker of functional and unused space, the inhabitant who separates, creates and breaks down boundaries, also between flora and concrete, his desire for ‘green’ and employing his powerful destructive powers to destroy that green. Making darkness and shadow and allowing light and making ‘lighting’ where he wanted to hide. And how he moves, acts and relates to others in that.”

More about the Dutch Photography Award: dupho.nl