Jean Pierre De Neef

The village of Saint-Emilion (France) - Contemporary Panoramic Color Photography

2011

Jean-Pierre De Neef came to photography like a new convert to religion, convinced that it would lend meaning to his life. His path took him first to a photographic laboratory, having once been a Cibachrome expert, regularly visited by French art photographers who made their way to Brussels to consult him. Well-versed in modern high performance techniques, nowadays Jean-Pierre De Neef produces art photos for several internationally known photographers whose works can be found in galleries and fairs the world over. Twelve years ago Jean-Pierre De Neef’s encounter with François Bayle, art critic and curator of the works of various photographers for Brussels Art Edition, enabled him to pursue his passion in new fields. He was at the side of the Italian photographer Fabrizio La Torre (Rome 1921, Brussels 2014) in the last few years of his life, who entrusted him with detailed instructions for digitising his archives and explained to him the results he was seeking. Jean-Pierre De Neef with his refined technical skills, and François Bayle with his creativity made up a team which was perfectly equipped to stage a number of well-received exhibitions of the work of Fabrizo La Torre - Museum of Ixelles (Brussels 2011), Principality of Monaco, an excellent Retrospective,(2014) and Bangkok (2019), which involved the presentation of the photos taken in Thailand between 1956 to 1961. Similar restoration work was performed on the photographic archives of the German photographer Jörg Krichbaum (d. 2002 in Brussels) and the remarkable photos of Rome taken by Enrico Valenziani in the 1860s. Gifted with exceptional technical skills, allied to an ability to stage spectacular exhibitions without betraying the intentions of the artist and at the same time bestowing on “his” photographers the commercial attractions of a gallery, Jean-Pierre De Neef is able to present these works to collectors and the general public in their most attractive form, never betraying the wishes of their creators. Because he supervises every step of the process, the same photo can take the form of a superb art print, digitised, numbered and authenticated, or of a very large format photo on PVC, plexiglass or canvas fit to decorate a public space or an event.