The 20 photographs in the exhibition Les femmes sont belles pay tribute to femininity: Anders Petersen’s proud, almost insolent beauties; Bill Steber’s beautiful, sensual dancer in a Mississippi juke joint; the beautiful legs in black silk stockings shot by Nathalie Amand; Isabelle Huppert, beautiful and dreamy in a Venice hotel, shot by Hugues de Wurstemberger; Françoise, beautiful, caressed by her husband Bernard Plossu’s camera; Carla van de Puttelaar’s dozing fairies… A few lovely words from Alain D’Hooge at the Box Galerie.
The exhibition title is Les femmes sont belles (“Women are beautiful”). What about men?
As Serge Gainsbourg said, “The beauty of the unattractive is easy to see.”
How about “Women are intelligent”? Possible?
Of course! But intelligence is invisible, so it’s difficult to photograph.
What is beauty?
The day we know the answer, beauty will have lost all its appeal and charm. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.
What guided you in your choice of the photographers to exhibit?
Most of the photographers are ones we represent, with a few outsiders…
The photo world—photographers, collectors—is it a man’s world?
I think that photography is one form of expression where women are best represented. Moreover, a significant portion of our “clientele” are women.
What do you think makes a good photograph?
For me, a good photograph is one where I can unmistakably and immediately see the trace of the artist. Anyone can take a good picture. Putting together a body of work is much more difficult. That’s what I’m interested in.
You’re a commercial gallery. How’s the photo market doing, in Belgium and abroad?
We’ve been active in the Belgian “market” for over ten years, which means it must not be doing too poorly.
What do you provide, concretely, to the photographers you represent? Do people come to present their work to you? What makes you decide to represent someone?
We offer them a long-term collaboration with multiple opportunities to exhibit their work. Most have been exhibited several times, alone or in group exhibitions. We keep their photographs on hand to show to collectors. And we organize regular exhibitions at institutions—mostly in Spain, for some mysterious reason. There’s no single rule that decides whether or not someone will be represented by the gallery. We have to like it, to see their work as a coherent whole, where it comes in the history of the medium, personal affinities, what has commercial potential, etc.
Do you have a personal favorite of these women?
All the women are beautiful in their own way. But I have a weakness for Jana, photographed by Toni Catany, with whom I’ve lived for many years without getting bored—although perhaps she’s tired of me admiring her.
EXHIBITION
Les femmes sont belles
Through March 28th 2015
Box Galerie
88 Rue du Mail
1050 Bruxelles
Belgique
