Matthieu Litt (B)

Short biography
Graphic designer, before completing his education in photography (Ecole des Arts Saint-Luc Liège), Matthieu Litt is mainly interested, in his practice and his approach, by the concept of distance and closeness, the means by which the tracks can be blurred, the markers between images coming from horizons or from radically different contexts. This gave him the opportunity, in just three years, to produce two first books highly noticed by the critics and amateurs, Horsehead Nebula first (with images from former Soviet republics), then Tidal Horizon, which brews images taken during an artist residency in Norway. Essentially using photography but without exclusivity, he’s contributing to a growing number of editorial projects.

Short project motivation
Explores a terrain that is called ‘Ry-Ponet’ (http://subdomains/2020.ryponet.be/), named after the small river that flows there. It is located in the metropolitan area of the Belgian city of Liège and covers an area of 350 hectares, five kilometers from the historic city center. It is an unplanned landscape park with hills and an unexpectedly large biodiversity. At the time of globalization, the green lung is a symbol of resistance, a place to breathe, to escape from city noise and pollution, a shelter for people and animals.

matthieulitt.com

Antoinette Nausikaä (NL)

Short biography
Growing up in a family of aerial photographers Antoinette Nausikaä learned about observing and zooming in and out on the world around her from an early age on.
Driven by a personal need for finding balance and stillness within a turbulent and rapidly changing world, Nausikaä explores the interconnectedness within our everyday environment. She poses questions such as; how does the human abstract relate to the natural organic? The mundane to the transcendent? Permanence to the impermanent? How to express the ineffable?.
During extended periods of time she observes places where culture and nature intertwine. By using photography, video, drawing and sculpture she analyzes and literally zooms in and out on her subjects. This way she aims to show that things are inextricably linked, influence each other and that there is no such thing as a single perspective on a subject.

Short project motivation
will use the River Seine near Paris as a workplace for a longer period of time. By observing and following this old river, she wants to find places where she can observe and collect material that expresses the (in)direct influence on the city and its inhabitants. In ancient cultures, people did not consider their rivers strictly geographically, as they do today. There is water everywhere, and it changes constantly. It includes all life and is endlessly looking for balance and harmony. In her project, Nausikaä wants to evoke the feeling of shelter and connection with nature that the Seine originally gave to the city of Paris in a visual way.

www.antoinettenausikaa.com

Martine Stig (NL)

Short biography
Martine Stig (b. 1972, Nijmegen, lives and works in Amsterdam) Photography itself is the locus of my work. The voyeuristic act: photography (verb) and the autonomic product: photo (noun). Whilst using the medium I research it’s role in the perception of reality. I employ cliché - a box of tricks that evolved with the profession itself - to manipulate a viewers’ viewing experience. Cultural framing interests me and how visual truths proves to be obverse. Before studying at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague, Martine Stig studied Philosophy. She has had many solo and group exhibitions, has published various books, and has a teaching and research position at the Master Photography of the AKV St. Joost in Breda.

Short project motivation
researches photography and visibility in an economy that is manipulated out of people‘s sight. Seen by drones or satellites, photographed by Google’s Street View camera or recognized by facial recognition software; topics of visibility and invisibility are becoming more urgent. Stig places the "invisibility as a human right" at the center. What do machines see? How do computers see us, read us? Are they biased? Can we fool the machine? Does camouflage work? With photography as a starting point, with image recognition and facial recognition, she wants to give a poetic analysis of modern society and make us think about the idea of invisibility as a human right.

martinestig.com

Dustin Thierry (NL)

Short biography
Dustin (b.1985) Willemstad, Curaçao, lives and works in Amsterdam. The issues he addresses in his photos are often as personal as they are social: He’s fascinated by what drives people. As opinions and pictures fly around the world, he captures moments of stillness for reflection.
Thierry believes that every image comes into its own when given the time and attention it deserves. That’s why he tends to prefer traditional methods. Part of their incomparable beauty lie in the manual process of developing and printing, in which the slowing down of time plays a vital role. “I’m always happy to discuss collaborations, commissions, editorial work or cameras.” Feel free to get in touch – it’s good to talk.

Short project motivation
wants to photograph a variety of people in the Netherlands and on Curacao, both from his own generation (the ‘millennials’) and the next one (‘Generation Z’). Thierry is curious about their quest to find a safe place to live by moving to the Netherlands or by staying in Curacao. Where do they fit socially and in society, what family structures are they part of? He wants to delve deeper into the causes of the dichotomy between a growing group of young people who fall through the cracks of society, and those who are successful – who are often not mentioned, ‘Good news is no news.’ Thierry wants to go beyond classical portrait photography by focusing on the very personal stories.

dustinthierry.com

Maarten Tromp (NL)

Short biography
Maarten Tromp (1980, Amsterdam) is a visual artist that lives and works in Amsterdam. In his work – film, photography and installations – he reacts and reflects on the surveillance state, mass media and Dutch colonial history.⁣

Tromp graduated at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague (NL) in 2005.
His photographic essay made in the streets of Amsterdam East was published as the book ‘The neighbour, his ex and the owner of the launderette’ (2008).
His photographs and short films were exhibited at FOTODOK, Fotofestival Naarden and Addis Foto Fest, in the Cobra Museum of Modern Art, World Trade Center Amsterdam, Filmhuis Den Haag and Museum Hilversum.

Short project motivation
his interpretation of ‘Gimme Shelter’ will consists of black-and-white portraits of primates made in rescue centers in the Netherlands and Indonesia.
The portraits are made without showing the context of the rescue centers and emphasize the expression and attitude of the animals. The animals that are staying in the Netherlands have been intercepted during smuggling or were kept as test animals, pets, or circus animals. The series called Primates is a study of the photographic portrait. Will the pictures form a mirror, just like people portraits? What do they tell us about ourselves? And what do they tell us about the way we look at and treat these animals?

www.maartentromp.net

Jordi Ruiz Cirera (UK/Mex)

Short biography
Jordi Ruiz Cirera is an independent documentary photographer and filmmaker from Barcelona, based in Mexico. Devoted to long-term projects, Jordi focuses on the effects of globalisation in small communities and how they are adapting to it, and, since relocating in Mexico City, on migration issues across the Americas.
He is a recipient of Magnum Foundation’s Emergency Fund and winner of global awards including the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in London, Magnum’s 30 under 30, POYi, Lucie Awards, Magenta Flash Forward and the AOP’s Student Photographer of the Year. His work has been exhibited widely in galleries and at festivals, and belongs to a number of private collections. Jordi’s work has appeared in international publications that include The New York Times, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Guardian, Le Monde M and National Geographic’s Proof.

Short project motivation
Cirera photographs the effects of globalization on local farming communities in various locations in South America. With his ongoing photo project, he wants to show how the almost elusive economic and financial forces – ‘the giant’ – that control the food production in the world at local level sometimes have destructive effects. Cirera focuses on land grabbing, forced migration, exploitation by transnational companies, and damage to nature and environment. For ‘Gimme Shelter’ he focuses on the role of the consumer in this issue. Along the way he realizes that ‘the giant’ is elusive and pervasive. Ultimately we are all part of it.

jordiruizphotography.com