My artistic practice revolves around exploring the materiality of the photograph. In a time when images are abundant, ephemeral, and predominantly digital, I return to photography’s roots to create pieces that are unique, possess staying power, and are distinctly analog in nature. My photographic works are objects that, not unlike fossils, evoke meaning through their materiality, attempting—but never quite succeeding—to become one with the fragment of reality they depict.

On this journey, I have found concrete to be the ideal compagnon de route. Concrete speaks in light and shadow, in endlessly shifting shades of gray, in patterns and rhythms that emerge as if carved by time itself. From the grandest brutalist architecture to the most utilitarian parking lot, concrete is assertive and speaks with authority. At the same time, it is eminently malleable, and almost photographic in the way it creates a negative image of the mould it is cast into. Concrete derives part of its meaning from the formwork that has shaped and marked it.

PHOTO BRUTE is a practice of persistence—of obsession. It is about returning to the same subject, the same material, the same question, again and again, until something reveals itself: a moment of clarity, a sense of wonder, an unexpected truth.

BIO

Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (b. 1976) is a photographer and linguist based in Leuven and Amsterdam. Trained in linguistics and literature, he began his photographic journey in 2016, and obtained a degree as a photographic artist from the Institute for Arts and Crafts in Mechelen (Belgium) in 2024. His work bridges the conceptual and the tactile, exploring the intersections of materiality, structure, and the photographic image.

EXHIBITIONS

Solo

Group

  • SHOW S4/1, artspace/gallery IMAGINAIR, Brussels, 16 March–27 April 2025

  • Urban Blue 6, Borluut Castle, Sint-Denijs Westrem, 6–8 December 2024 (installation views)

  • How does it feel, Institute for Arts & Crafts in Mechelen, 31 May–9 June 2024 (installation views)