BIOGRAPHY :

 

Marco SCHMIDT is born in Antwerp in 1972.

 

He does a first stint at photography at the age of 20 when he leaves everything to explore unbeaten tracks in the Middle East and South-East Asia for a year, armed with an analog Nikon F601 and a 50mm lens, the one he still cherish. 

 

Upon returning to Brussels, he goes to study architecture in one of Belgium renowned universities. During his studies, the German Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin, and early 20th Century photography were important inspirational sources.

 

Marco's work is praised in the various famous architectural studios he worked for in Belgium, Israel and France. After that experience Marco opens an architectural practice in Antwerp.

 

Since 2010, he splits his time between architecture and fine art photography.

 

He is currently working and living in Belgium.

 

PHOTOGRAPHY :

 

Marco shoots street photography on the footsteps and in the spirit of the masters of early candid photography. His work features random encounters, strangers unaware of being photographed in city hubs such as public squares, subways, malls and museums.
 
The shots are taken in natural light without artifices and he does not ask people to pose nor modify reality digitally. Marco is acting as an observant passer-by, and as such maintains a certain remove. He refrains from entering the personal sphere of his subjects and limits himself to the public space. The unawareness of the subject and the natural environment are essential in overcoming the formal and unnatural behaviour of those who are being photographed. The people are extras. A part of the composition. Often with their back turned to us.
 
The chosen perspectives and the framing is on the other hand very cinematographic and seems staged. So are the textures and the colours during the editing phase.
 
Playing with this opposition Marco post-processes his images in a personal way in order to create a final and personal printed artwork.

 

In the end it is not an image the viewer is lured into, but an atmosphere, a story, a visual poetry.