Thierry Vanlee Photography

I am a self-taught photographer based in Gent, Belgium. Currently studying at the Academy of fine arts of Ghent.

Although photography has always been in my life it is mostly  the last 4 years that I started to take photography more seriously and it became an important part of my life, who I am, and how I look at the world.

Photography provides me the possibility to investigate, reflect, present on how I experience and see the world, myself, and my place in time and space. Photography gives me the tool to manage, develop, present and use my slightly autistic personality to the fullest. 

I think I'm intuitive photographer absorbing and photographing people, situations, buildings, relations,…which I encounter roaming around. Most of the times I have a camera with me resulting in high volume of work.I often manipulate and zoom into during post seeking and creating the level of structure, control and formatting I prefer/need, often creating a different story / image then the one that was originally captured or seen.

I make what I call //series//. These are typically a limited set images which I feel should be presented and seen together as they tell a story and/or belong together from a style, mood,...point of view. Most of these series originate thoughtless and unplanned. It is after reviewing the result that they reveal themselves as a serie. 

The last years, driven by my study at the Academy of fine arts, I also started to use a more project based approach. Moving forward I expect that this approach will become more important. This approach aims to investigate topics in depth and over a longer period of time. Taking more time to develop a body of work does not come naturally to me so even most of the realised projects are created within a relative short period. I’m currently working on couple of new projects. One evolves around how places reflect the people who lived in them and another project will be a reportage/documentary photographical voyage I plan through the Balkans, Turkey and Georgië to investigate topics such as emigration, believe, East-West relationships,...

If you want to talk about my work or discuss a collaboration please contact me.

Thierry.