These photographs originate from my analogue period, mainly during the 1980s. They were made at a time when photography was inseparable from attention, patience, and a slower pace. Every exposure required a conscious decision. There was no screen to reveal the result instantly, no endless stream of images to select from afterwards. The image first existed in the imagination and only emerged days later in the darkroom.

This way of working shaped the way I see. I was never searching for the spectacular, but for the quiet presence that lies beneath the surface of everyday life. Looking with attention became a way of engaging with the world. The stillness that inhabits these photographs is not only a quality of what is depicted, but also of the process through which the images came into being.

Now, many years later, I see how these images form the basis of themes that continue to run through my work: memory, transience, time, and the meaning of the image. The archive is therefore not a closed chapter of the past, but a living source where past and present continue to meet.

Since 2025, m.simons gallery has been bringing my photographic work from the 1980s and 1990s back into focus. The gallery first presented my work at PAN Amsterdam 2025, followed by a selection of my early photography in a duo exhibition at Art Rotterdam 2026, which, according to the gallery, has yet to receive the attention it deserves.
In August 2026, my photography will again be included in the group exhibition The Plaintive Tense. The title is taken from a phrase that appeared in a drawing by Tim Ayres in the 1990s; Ayres is also the curator of the exhibition. In this way, the living archive is finding a new place within my current practice.