Press Release - Edition Patrick Frey

 Press Release
Bieke Depoorter
I Am About To Call It a Day
A jaundiced light envelops the wood, attempting to restrain the pitch-black night from darkening the surrounding grounds. Like a thief in the night, we catch sight of a female silhouette stretched out, an image of
oblivion against the wooded backdrop. The blue white polka dot bathing suit almost escapes the eye. How
easily the gaze adjusts, marveling at the shadow play in the background. Yet, much the way we might discover people worshipping the sun at summer beaches, we now watch a figure moon bathing in the nightly
gloom. Her mind wanders off to places that are beyond our ken. Lying in a stone bath, she has abandoned
the outside world, shaken it off like water off a duck‘s back. She appears to reach out, her hand presumably
waiting to be kissed. We imagine how she might slowly, gradually disappear into the man-sized hole.
The tainted light, which had just seemed somewhat unsettling, now reveals a golden glimmer, as though
capturing or conjuring this ostensibly unattended moment. It is hard to fathom that this scene could possibly
have taken place anywhere, anytime. It is even harder to fathom how skillfully the photographer has succeeded in making this moment seem perfectly self-evident.
As a follow-up to her widely acclaimed book Ou Menya, Bieke Depoorter (member of Magnum Photos)
traveled to the United States, spending the night at the homes of perfect strangers, whose paths she
crossed upon her wanderings. However, as we leaf through the book, it would hardly cross our minds that
these people ever had Bieke‘s company. They seem utterly oblivious, about to call it a day, as if the photographer has managed to make herself unseen, leaving only her eye behind. In reality, she won their hearts
by candidly admitting to her own vulnerability. In turn, they confided in her, and so we watch these fletting
figures forever waving to us, signaling that they are still here, living their lives despite the strife and struggle.
We are immersed in obscurity. We find ourselves scarcely scratching the surface of these unpolished and
unvarnished images. A surreal breeze drifts through the portraits and landscapes in this book despite their
documentary nature, while the visual idiom inclines towards the cinematographic. Maybe these images were
not meant to be fathomed; rather, the photographer is acutely aware of the inarticulate and the ineffable,
melting away into thin air ever so easily. We watch how everything puzzles into place within the frame of the
picture, and how once upon a time the light caressed a surface. Faraway, so close.
Edition Patrick Frey
T +41 (0)44 381 51 02 [email protected]
Limmatstrasse 268www.editionpatrickfrey.ch
CH-8005 Zürich
Press Release
Bieke Depoorter
I Am About To Call It a Day
Nº 169
Design: Armand Mevis
Hardcopy, 43 pages
42 color images
42 x 28 cm
ISBN 978-3-905929-69-0
EUR 57 / CHF 70
For further information on picture usage or if you wish to receive a review copy, please
contact: Gloria Wismer, Edition Patrick Frey.
T +41 (0)44 381 51 02 E [email protected]