| Photographers
Biography:
The artist Johan van Breukelen originally
began his artistic career as a lighting and decor-designer with
several theatre companies. Since 1989, he has devoted himself to
two-dimensional works of art in which he draws with light. He makes
photo works and photographs. His photo works are a combination of
photography and different drawing and painting techniques. The photographs
are characterized by playing with light and reflection and the direct
painting of bodyıs. Men inspire the subjects of his paintings. During
photographic sessions he seeks, together with his models, to imagine
his ideas and fantasies, male sexual energy, strength and vulnerability.
The manipulation in the photography is a
reflection of the contact between photographer and model and portrays
for both of them an innermost and thus highly personalized state
of being. The end-result is thus a 'biographical monument.'Johan
van Breukelenıs art both repels and attracts the observer. It is
not always pleasant to be confronted with light where all your intuition
tells you to expect darkness. The work therefore provides a focus
on reality in the life of the observer. The play with light and
darkness demands contrast for its perception.
For only through consciousness of darkness
is light revealed, and vice versa. By working with shadows, van
Breukelen portrays men's desire, contact-seeking and bonding with
other men. Through the photographer's eyes, a mirror image is an
external expression of an inner world and is intended as a symbol
of the force of attraction between men which is based on the compulsion
to encounter and become acquainted with oneself.
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