It was must have been 1981, Rue de Lorraine, in the offices of Libération. I dealt with all the photographers. I don’t remember all of them, but I do remember Michel, and very clearly. He gave me a copy of Chroniques immigrées about the world of activists. It was filled with dignity, lights, interiors, proximity. He had spent two years working with Christian Carez, his partner, with whom he had explored the world of Belgian competition.
On that day, Michel vanden Eeckhoudt wanted to show me the culmination of several years of photographs shot in zoos. It was a work on absolute indignity, deep sadness, but in a tone free of dramatization: elegant, fluid, guided by light, reflections, impeccable framing that made the absurdity of these detention centers apparent. He used a Leica, but not in the tradition of Cartier-Bresson’s followers eager to show how brilliant they were at composition. No, to me he was more like the cartoonists of his country, Belgium. It was like an attempt at la ligne claire in photography. Michel wanted to turn it into a book. I called Robert Delpire and Zoologies came out a year later.
He went on working with Robert Delpire and they published his best books together, like Duo (2000), a chronicle of the relationships between animals and man, and Doux-amer (“Bittersweet”), which accompanied the remarkable exhibition at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2013 and whose title says it all. It was both a vision of the world and a conviction. A tender, generous and deeply human vision, marveling at how the black and white colors construct a space, make the grays vibrate, and a bitter (but never despairing) observation that hid deep feeling behind a graphic pirouette.
Michel vanden Eeckhoudt presented the world as a set of jokes, gags, both in the working world and in the street. One child wears a mask. Another is seen in a burst of sunlight. And the owner of a dog on a leash seems pursued by a menacing shadow. But the smile they bring to one’s face—he had a keen eye that could anticipate situations and capture without flourish or effect. Michel immerse us in a world that cannot work. Better to smile, even if we’re still thinking about it deep down.
Michel vanden Eeckhoudt, 1947-2015. Today is truly a bitter day.
