Belgian photographer Frederik Vercruysse publishes very first book

For the very first time, photographer Frederik Vercruysse has collected some of his best photography in a book. Index 2006-2016 includes architecture and interior design photos, as well as intriguing still lifes, compositions and landscape photography. Index 2006 - 2016 is available in stores and online as from 29 October.

‘If I can’t control reality, I like to control the image of reality.’ - Frederik Vercruysse

That is Frederik Vercruysse’s artistic vision in a nutshell, a vision that is felt throughout his first book Index. A book heavy with serene beauty and, above all, wonderful photography.

The two main fascinations of the photographer, graphics and composition, are present in each of his photographs. Index shows how controlled Frederik Vercruysse works: the photographer takes the time to carefully arrange and rearrange, until he has found the most balanced composition. This often results in images that resemble paintings more than they do photographs.

Index is divided in three parts. ‘Composition’ shows compositions from carefully arranged bandages to a creation with a notebook and briefcase or a perfectly aligned set of cutlery. In his still lifes, the photographer creates a kind of micro-architecture with an eye for lines and symmetry.

In ‘Control’, Vercruysse’s fascination for architecture surfaces. In each building or interior he photographs, he looks for the one detail that intrigues him the most. Like a graphic designer, he plays with lines, structures, colours and perspective. His architecture photographs are telling for the time they were made in, but they also tell a more intimate story about how people live and work. It is his way of portraying people.

And even when Frederik Vercruysse cannot control his subject, he manipulates reality. The third part of Index, ‘Out of Control’, focuses on Vercruysse’s landscape photography. Often, the images are manipulated so that they create a new reality, a reality that evokes a kind of romantic atmosphere for the photgrapher. This again blurs the line between photograph and painting.

Available in stores and online as from 29 October

Read the full press release here