Photography Exhibition Griet Van Malderen – Back to the Collodions

For her first exhibition at Guy Pieters Gallery, the Flemish photographer presents her unique and moving prints on glass.

What a face this young Ethiopian from the OMO Valley has! This Collodion print sublimates her serenity! Griet Van Malderen is delighted that Guy Pieters has given her carte blanche to display her most recent work in The Office, his new gallery in Knokke. Collodion, which dates back to the time of Gustave Le Gray and Frederick Scott Archer at the end of the 19th century, was revived in the United States in the late 1990s. And this technique, which combines shooting, chemistry and a demanding technique for developing on glass plates, brings an astonishing fineness of grain and a very wide tonal range. The prints play with the light. «These one-metre by one-metre formats are the largest I have made, after 30 x 30 cm and 50 x 50 cm,» adds the Flemish photographer, « which is why I have opened my work to these portraits of Ethiopian tribesmen, made just before the confinement of the Covid, at the end of 2019 »

Since the beginning, Griet’s world has been entirely focused on wildlife photography. First with her family on photo safaris in South Africa, with a simple pocket camera. Then the call of nature came and she became one of the very few professional wildlife photographers in a short time. She travels mainly in South Africa, but also in Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania and Namibia. In search of the most beautiful species, which are also the most endangered. « That’s why I never impose myself at the expense of my subjects, I never force their features, I hope that my photographs transpire this respect to the animals who give me a lot, I leave the spectacular, the bestial to men » To testify with strength but also with femininity to the beauty of Nature and its endearing fauna, that is her objective! The Collodion also reflects a certain nostalgia. «Let’s hope that man will be able to let the wild life survive in its natural space, because independently of the climatic risk, man is constantly shrinking the territories essential to the preservation of species.