Picture Me
How do you save the person you don’t want to lose? Photographer Ursula van de Bunte eternalizes her model and muse Paul Rooyackers by continuously capturing him from different perspectives, in new ways and in varying contexts. From this process, the photo series in this book was born, of which the first photo was shot in 2015—now almost a decade prior. “Write what should not be forgotten”, a quote by Isabel Allende: however, in this case, that ‘should not be forgotten’ is captured in images rather than in words.
As a young girl, Ursula wandered around with a camera. It was only when she started taking analogue photographs and developing them by hand for her field of education in fashion, did the spark ignite. After this period, she decided to study photography, and in 2004 she registered as an independent photographer.
Paul encouraged Ursula to create her own work, to think beyond existing frameworks and to start creating from her own vision. She began portraying him in different settings; that’s how he became her muse.
This project felt like the beginning of creative freedom and absolute magic. The series is a tribute to Paul and the countless creative lives he has impacted throughout his career.
Picture Me contains carefully curated photographs from this series, the result of improvising, experimenting and creating together as model and photographer. This series showcases the great variety in the photographer’s work, consisting of classically oriented images as well as comic scenes and vulnerable portraits. Much like a time capsule, this book shows not only Ursula’s development as a photographer, but also the inevitable passage of time.
Today, Ursula’s portraits of Paul hang all over the world. Ursula does everything herself, together with Paul, from concept to styling, make-up and photography. With her work, she wants to show that not much is needed to tell a new story every time, and that there is an inexhaustible source of beauty in the simplicity of the everyday.
She sees it as her mission to make that beauty visible with her creations; everything is already here, as long as we don’t forget to truly look.
www.ursula-artphotography.com
Instagram: @ursfotografie
“To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.”
― Susan Sontag, uit On Photography
