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Didier EngelsCrash2024
2024
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Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
Price Upon Request
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About the Item
Didier Engels is a Belgian visual artist whose work transforms industrial maritime elements into photographic compositions. With over 30 years of professional experience in surface and texture design, (25 years as a textile stylist and five as an interior architect) Engels brings delicate attention to material and color in his photographic practice. Since 2015, he has dedicated himself fully to artistic photography, launching his initial series DRY DOCK and KAAIEN to immediate acclaim.
Engels’ fascination with ports and ships is deeply rooted in his experiences growing up. As a child, he spent time wandering the docks, and at the age of 20, he worked as a docker in the port of Zeebrugge. These formative experiences created a lasting connection to the maritime world. The ships, containers, dockside structures, and rusted cars he photographs are more than industrial relics, they contain memory and altercation, bearing the marks of salt, spray, rust, and time.
Cargo containers are his primary focus, chosen based on their rougher surfaces and deep, worn colors. By removing additional distractions and framing these subjects to emphasize their visual and chromatic aspects, Engels separates them from their real-world settings. Through the use of alignments, textures, and colors, this method allows viewers to interact with the image through abstraction before identifying the industrial object that is the subject of the composition.
Through his lens, Engels elevates what we often overlook. Faded colors, oxidized marks, and sedimentary textures become the language through which he expresses beauty and impermanence. His photographs, which are bright yet aged in tone, reflect the life cycle of ships returning to port or being stored in dry dock. His dry dock series specifically uses aerial photography to capture several boat hulls. His art, exhibited across Europe and the United States, invites a reconsideration of the industrial landscape, challenging viewers to find grace and narrative in the rusted, the worn, and the forgotten.
- Creator:Didier Engels (1970, Belgian)
- Creation Year:2024
- Dimensions:Height: 140 in (355.6 cm)Width: 125 in (317.5 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
- More Editions & Sizes:120x107x2Price: $6,500140x125x2Price: $6,900
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New York, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1566216257992
After a career of more than 30 years in the research of textures (20 years as a textile stylist and 10 years as interior design architect), Didier Engels has shifted towards photography. As a self-taught Belgian photographer, he started his photographic work "Dry Dock" and "Kaaien" in January 2015. One of the main features of his work on piers and containers is to divert visuals that are essentially graphic and colored. In order to give them a more artistic dimension, he removes all peripheral elements other than the subject itself. The arrangement of colors of the containers are those of the original shot. The "diversion", or particular framing of the containers in post-production, enhances the existing graphic design and positions the subject as the main element. The idea is to create confusion and challenge the viewer, who presumably will not have seen the original photo. The eye will be drawn first by the colors, the alignments and the graphic nature of the image. It is only afterwards that the eye will perceive the underlying element, namely, the container or boat hull. His work extends, during his exhibitions, into discussions with the visitors and the chance to explain the before and after of the works.
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