Content: Timeless | Borderline | All the lonely People | To live On | About Rita
Long time ago, I had a dream: I wanted to become a journalist. I never realized that dream, but the urge to show social issues has remained.
Photography is the universal language of our era, it speaks a visual language that’s universally understood. That’s why photography is so important to me. That’s why I get up early in the morning and why I start walking late at night to take images of urban and natural landscapes, always starting from an emotional background and with a social theme as the starting point.
Timeless
Project
Harmony and silence, as a counterpart to a hectic world
In this series I search for tranquility with images of landscapes, in which I find harmony and silence, as a counterpart to a hectic world … This tranquility is translated into timeless and strange images, which are neither black and white nor in colour. They are minimalist and timeless landscapes that radiate an age-old and unchanging atmosphere.
“The images evoke feelings of all times: a certain sadness for what was, and a certain nostalgia for what has been.”
For me, nature photography is a medium to let things go, to forget all my worries. In this way I find comfort and strength in nature, a feeling that I also want to share with the viewer.
Borderline
Project
Spaces and places
Borderline is the most widespread diagnosis by psychiatrists today… Borderline is a personality disorder, on the boundary between a psychosis and neurosis. In short, we can say that a psychotic person struggles with reality, and neurotic people are in conflict with themselves. Borderline is the middle between the two.
“Borderline is chaos, loneliness, emptiness, fear and aggression: all characteristics that are largely reflected in our contemporary society.”
Borderliners don’t exhibit any particular outward characteristics. Borderline also has no specific face, but many faces instead. Therefore, in this series, the human presence is previously suggested, rather than shown. Dark, sometimes oppressive images of spaces and places evoke feelings of fear, loneliness, chaos, emptiness and aggression.
All those lonely people
Project
Existential or spiritual loneliness
Have you ever felt alone despite being surrounded by your family, your friends, in a crowd? That’s what’s called existential or spiritual loneliness.
It’s my conviction that we are all essentially lonely: we are individuals with our own environment, we can never completely become one with others, we are physically separated from others and we live with our own thoughts. Moreover, every person is a unique person and also a solitary creature.
“Existential loneliness is the feeling of an unbridgeable gap between yourself and others, between yourself and the world. It has nothing to do with social loneliness and can therefore not be solved by, for example, more social contacts …”
These kinds of feelings lead to questions about meaning, mortality and nullity of our own lives. Sadness, emptiness, fear and powerlessness can result from this, but by confronting, facing and accepting one’s own fears and feelings, these kinds of feelings lead to a stronger awareness of yourself.
To live on
Project
To infinity and beyond
I made these images as part of the Breda Photo 2018 master class. The theme of that edition was ‘To infinity and beyond’. In these images I’m telling the story of a young woman who loses her fight against leukaemia after an intense battle lasting eight years. It is a story about humanity and science, about success and failure, about hope and despair, but also about love beyond death: to infinity and beyond.
“In spite of everything, modern medical science could not save her life, but did succeed in giving life to her unborn child via a surrogate mother, months after her passing.”
To live on, which was impossible for her, is possible for her child in whom she now lives on. Her partner, relatives and friends must also live on, without her, but with her child in memory of her.
This story reflects on life and death, on scientific knowledge and powerlessness, on the ethical aspect and the lack of legal framework around surrogacy.
Rita (Riet) Verduyckt
Education
In June 2017 she graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Lier. In addition she followed the Master Class Breda Photo 2017-2018 (The Netherlands), and various workshops: Piet Van den Eynde, Bart Heirweg, Mirjam Appelhof.
Expositions
- Art gallery L’Avenir, Lier, Belgium 2019
- University Hospital Gasthuisberg Leuven, Belgium 2018
- Bredaphoto, Masterclass , Breda (The Netherlands) 2018
- Cultural Center ‘t Blikveld, Bonheiden, Belgium 2017
- Graduation Exposition, curator Patrick Verbeeck, Lier, Belgium 2017
Photography Circuit Flanders, Belgium
- December 3, 2019 – December 24, 2019: Elcker-ik, Antwerp
- January 8, 2020 – February 3, 2020: Cultural Center Bornem
- February 5, 2020 – March 2, 2020: Cultural Center Halle
- March 3, 2020 – March 30, 2020: Cultural Center Wemmel
- April 1, 2020 – May 4, 2020: Cultural Center Ternat
- October 9, 2020 – September 6, 2021: Cultural Center Heist op den Berg
- September 10, 2021 – October 6, 2021: Cultural Center Maaseik
- October 8, 2021 – November 11, 2021: Cultural Center Houthalen Helchteren
- November 12, 2021 – December 12, 2021: Cultural Center Pelt
- December 13, 2021 – January 13, 2022: Cultural Center Evergem
- January 17, 2022 – February 10, 2022: Cultural Center Tielt
- February 14, 2022 – March 10, 2022: Cultural Center Izegem
- March 11, 2022 – March 31, 2022: Cultural Center Torhout
- April 4, 2022 – May 5, 2022: Cultural Center Ieper
- May 9, 2022 – June 2, 2022: Cultural Center Menen
- May 6, 2022 – September 8, 2022: Cultural Center Merelbeke
- September 13, 2022 – October 7, 2022: Cultural Center Aartselaar
Publications
Edge of Humanity, Magazine, august 2019
Picture Rita Verduyckt: Marc Geeraerts