Artist presentation

Pieter de Koninck

I first picked up a camera at the age of 13, my father's folding Zeiss. Soon, I had a small TLR that documented my teenage travels in Europe. I had a rudimentary bathroom darkroom where I taught myself developing and printing, guided by Andreas Feininger's The Complete Photographer. A summer job allowed me to acquire a Nikon F. I aspired to be a photojournalist at the time. My photographic ambitions were waylaid by a lack of formal training, plus I had the abili-

ty to make a decent living as a graphic designer and later as an advertising art director. I learned a lot along the way working with top-tier commercial photographers and cinematographers as an art director for many print anfd television campaigns. Now retired from the commercial world, I am free to practice my first passion, photography.

Artist statement

I try to make honest images of honest subjects. Nothing is staged—I meet the ordinary on its own terms, sometimes finding the enigmatic and the fascinating along the way. Perhaps the photos take me rather than the other way around. The photos are judiciously provocative, with a quiet wit. Each one asks the viewer to participate, to draw their own conclusions. Linger on the photos and the humor reveals itself. They are pictures of the pauses between words.I work mostly in medium format film and digital, primarily black and white. Black and white allows composition, shape, pattern and texture to come to the forefront.Photography is the same idea as magic: there are hidden things behind everyday appearances. Everyday appearance is not the real reality.