Maarten Marchau

Born (1967) in Bruges, living & working in Gent, Belgium
Graduated Interior Architect, HAISL (1993) and
Fine Art Photography, Sint-Lucas Academie (2011)

Maarten Marchau has always been fascinated by the influence of time on the photographic creation of an image as antipole for the traditional still image and this has been a frequently recurring element in his work.  Making visible what is not really there, the moment spread over a longer time span, fragments united into a track that the object covers in time. He also works around the absence of a subject in the scene, which creates the feeling of a missing presence, a non-presence. Other recurring themes are confrontations with death and life, of relic and growth, of young and old, transformations and metamorphosis.

The composition of the image, with elements intentionally placed or indifferently left within the framework, are evidence of reality. Removing the space by placing the subject in an impersonal and undefined environment questions this testimony.

Maarten Marchau often works in series. Without a presupposed completion the series may or may not be extended or continued. What makes the series is the theme which forms the basis for the images, the way of presenting, the instinctive or technical approach of the idea, the story, the expression. Starting from an idea that is gradually being rethought and refined he remains critical of the results, holding on to the original concept.

http://maartenmarchau.be/site/index.php