'Catharsis' selected for Grote Prijs Sociale Fotografie 2023
📅 17 June 2023
My photo series Catharsis has been selected as a finalist for the 2023 edition of the 'Grote Prijs Sociale Fotografie' (Grand Prize for Social Photography) organised by the Flemish socio-cultural organization Linx+. The photos will be exhibited, along with the work of the six other finalists, from Thursday, July 13th to Sunday, July 23rd, 2023, at Ons Huis on Vrijdagmarkt in Ghent. The opening will take place on July 13th at 7:00 PM. During the Gentse Feesten / Ghent Festival, the exhibition will be open daily from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM.
Catharsis is a photographic series that explicitly aligns itself with the surrealist tradition, where the distinction between dream and reality, consciousness and the subconscious, reason and emotion are abandoned. It is an associative flow of images that alternates between surreal dreamscapes, fading memories, and sublimated desires. Catharsis deliberately does not follow a linear storyline, although a rudimentary narrative structure can be found. Instead, it descends along an unpredictable path into the depths of the psyche. The overall result is a fragmented collage that works both purifying and disturbingly.
The Catharsis series was selected as a finalist at the London Street Photography Festival in 2020 and was exhibited in 17 Flemish cultural centers as a traveling exhibition for Fotografiecircuit Vlaanderen between 2019 and 2022. The series was also published on various international photography websites such as Eyeshot Magazine and Life Framer.
Photos award ceremony: Jo Schelstraete
Publication of the series in RAUW Sociale Fotografie Magazine 2023: