Stefan Martens
Based in Brussels

My idea is Catching time, Catching life.

To grasp time and at the same time participate in life at the place where it happens. Recording and Experiencing time. Capturing time can be done by capturing the shadows. This play of light and shadow forms the rhythm of my work.

For that I make 360° panorama’s. In this, I’m involved in life on this spot. After a whole day it is time to compose my canvas, the graphic display of the day. All the pictures are like words or notes in a story. To make my canvasses I have to edit and choose my pictures. Sometimes it takes more than 2000 shots to come to satisfying image. I Call it “Digitally Hand Crafted Images“.

For me it is important to create a nice graphic if you see it from a distance, but once you come nearer, you find life, colors and other interesting stories. The intention is to make the viewer look at everyday life in a different way, and in a way discover new reality.

I want it to be more than just looking at the total picture. The spectator has to focus, to frame. It is a kind of quest, searching and enjoying. The graphics to attract, the details to enjoy. In a way you could say that I try to take photography out of its frame….

In my work “Station2Station” I used the 3 Brussels stations; Nord for Winter, Central for Spring/Autumn and South for Summer. Longer days create another composition and other colours. Light, Seasons and Perspective influence the final image.

Another feature is that I want my works to have a dialogue with each other. Therefore I sometimes go back to the same spot on a different time. See ‘Trees Winter and Fall’, ’Sea-Lence and Life’, ’BXL North Winter and Summer’ and KB in 3 seasons. This gives my imagination a huge boost, but please note that not every idea can result in a work. I have to do it mainly to be able to judge it. This, of course, is how I experience things. That is why I also make “Polaroids” of my “Journey”. Hopefully, the day will come when this book can accompany the works, so that the viewer, in addition to what he can imagine, can also have a glimpse into my experience.

Light is Time. Time is Colour. In a way, it is nature that gives my work its colour palette.

Frozen Timelapse can also be seen as slowing down. The images allow you to dwell on reality. The “Stillness of Change”.The opposite of the film Koyaanisqatsi/1982..

You find 4 chapters in this site; Urban, more grafic and the feeling of the big city surroundings, Nature, colour and natural environment even in the cities, N_Hood, those inspiring details of my neighbourhood and finally Silence, which is more reflective…..

Printed by myself in Limited Editions on Fine Art Paper in 2 formats; 54 or 104cm large.

Don’t hesitate to send a mail if you want any information.

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New ideas and realisation: From Biestebroek to Buda; a story along the canal.

It started to mature when I was not allowed to continue my series about the trees in the neighbourhood of Damme. Corona put a stop to it. So I made a virtue of necessity. Since we had moved back to Brussels from “De Rand” a while ago, I wanted to recreate my image “Home”, “Home Again”, here in Anderlecht. The canal doesn’t have much of a reputation, but if you look through it, it’s quite an interesting neighbourhood, and certainly photogenic.
You can see cyclists, walkers and scaters in the images, as well as boats passing by.
Starting in Anderlecht, he journey continues via the Wayez Bridge to the Molenbeek Lock. I shot this in both autumn and spring. The many people coming to watch, as well as the boats going back and forth between loading and unloading can be seen in it. “The Park without a Name” and Lemmens Square are also included.
Via Saintclette and Gare Maritiem, you then come to the end of the district; the Buda Bridge. You can see this steel work of art as the border. It was already a subject of our students at Saint Luke’s in the 1970s. Now I have made it graphically so that it feels like a gateway. One side with the sun and the other, on “the other” side, in backlight. Here too, you can see life on and next to the bridge.I’ve been working on it for about 2 years, and it can still evolve.

March 2017: Gallery De Buck Fotokabinet, Gent.

January – February 2019: Bog-Art, Brussels

March – October 2019: Elisabeth-Hotel, Mechelen

March – April 2020: “Time is Colour” Gallery Charlotte Van Lorreinen Tervuren Cancelled due COVID 19

October 2020: “Light is Time” Cow Working Gallery, S.L. Woluwe

March – April 2021: “Time is Colour” Gallery Charlotte Van Lorreinen Tervuren

April 2022: ItinéArt Anderlecht. 23 and 24 april 22 from 10:00 to 18:00 in the Foppensstraat.

music JM Jarre