About
During my studies as a graphic designer and advertiser, my focus was on photography from the very beginning. Together with friends we built our own photo studio and experimented with exposures of black and white shots. Starting as an Art Director in an advertising agency, I soon came into contact with various photographers from fashion, interior design, architecture and packaging design. I have always tried to apply the fascination to create the right atmosphere and lighting for different subjects to my work as a starting photographer. The focus on landscapes has started to grow during my travels through Central and North America and Australia. I started looking at people as a subject and as part of a situation.
Due to my studies at the academy (2016-2021), my immediate environment became more and more the subject of my reports, partly in response to the foreign input but also because of the potential that could be found in my immediate environment and remained untouched. This search pushed my nose to everyday situations and elements that we constantly pass by, although they are part of our living environment.
Storytelling Walls continues this line with an extra focus on the details, colour combinations and compositions with attention to interesting details and taking the flat perspective point of view. I do not wish to make any compromises with regard to the incidence of light and the situation of the environment, which I do not wish to influence in any way. The viewer gets to see what I recorded on the spot, without image manipulations or photo retouches.
Window on Reflection shows my predilection for the sometimes picturesque impression of situations that appear to be part of reality but in fact do not exist. Through reflections and the play of light, another dimension is formed, by shifting the focus to specific details, the abstraction becomes the new reality.
Toon Van Hoof (photography teacher): “ Mark De Roeck has always had a preference for landscape images during his career. Initially it was about a form of landscape photography, which had its origin in The New Topographics Movement, but gradually took on more and more abstract forms. In his series “Storytelling Walls” Mark already managed to avoid the classical interpretation of the landscape tableau and to reduce the three-dimensional reality to a two-dimensional reality, not only because of the photographic representation, but also because of his shooting point of view. The depth and usual horizon of the classical landscape was compressed into an almost flat scene.
Also in his new series “Window on Reflection” he uses similar shooting angles and focuses on the two-dimensional surfaces, albeit with the important difference that the surfaces now consist of reflective and translucent materials through which a new reality manifests itself.
Windows tells the story of the visited locations as described in the above reports and the images provide a view of the atmosphere and its surroundings. All visited properties are located in the vicinity of my home base in Oud-Turnhout (Turnhout/Antwerp) and have now partly disappeared.
Snow & Shadow in the nature reserve de Liereman, abstraction in black and white with only the existing elements, the capriciousness and beauty of the light tells its own story on the temporary surface.
Beautiful structures and shapes come into their own where nature is still somewhat protected.
We don’t always think about the extent to which human activities have an impact on our environment. That is why, during my reportages, I started storing images that struck me at the time. In doing so, I want to show that the interventions made play an important role and scar the landscape.
Past glory in the neighbourhood Only cars not risking a future new life were captured by me. Appearance, design and type do determine whether or not to capture them on film although the choice and range are not comparable to what you find abroad.
Examining the structures people build to create space in a city.
Photo series on the Port of Antwerp. Report on one of the world’s biggest ports
Exciting photo themes and topics. Photographs and insights photographed by chance with the characteristic and sense that they are interesting, images criss-crossing each other that eventually claim a place in a series