AGATA - Bieke Depoorter
In October 2017, Depoorter met Agata at a strip club in Paris. Over the next three years, the women dove deep into a collaboration, creating a small alternative universe that served as a container for exploring the questions they each had about identity, performance and representation: Who is the true author of these images? Who is the real subject? Who is Agata? Who is Agata when she is photographed? Who is Bieke? Who is Bieke when she takes the photos? Why do these photos? What are the motives? Who is responsible for what?
The book tells both the story of a young woman who turns to a photographer to find meaning in her identity, and the story of a photographer who turns to a young woman to better understand the author of the photograph and himself. These intertwined narratives are told through a combination of images, letters and notes, but what defines the dialogue is the omnipresent reflex of self-awareness and self-reflection. The result is a project that never arrives at a conclusive truth, but highlights the slippery nature of truth in situations where power, responsibility and control are in constant flux.
Overall, Agata is a project that poses more questions than it offers answers, first acknowledging the well-known idea of the photographer as witness as a relative impossibility, then throwing all the players involved under the microscope: photographer, subject, audience and, of course, the medium itself.
Published by Des Palais, 2021
32 cm x 24 cm, 424 pages, new
ISBN 9789464590272
In October 2017, Depoorter met Agata at a strip club in Paris. Over the next three years, the women dove deep into a collaboration, creating a small alternative universe that served as a container for exploring the questions they each had about identity, performance and representation: Who is the true author of these images? Who is the real subject? Who is Agata? Who is Agata when she is photographed? Who is Bieke? Who is Bieke when she takes the photos? Why do these photos? What are the motives? Who is responsible for what?
The book tells both the story of a young woman who turns to a photographer to find meaning in her identity, and the story of a photographer who turns to a young woman to better understand the author of the photograph and himself. These intertwined narratives are told through a combination of images, letters and notes, but what defines the dialogue is the omnipresent reflex of self-awareness and self-reflection. The result is a project that never arrives at a conclusive truth, but highlights the slippery nature of truth in situations where power, responsibility and control are in constant flux.
Overall, Agata is a project that poses more questions than it offers answers, first acknowledging the well-known idea of the photographer as witness as a relative impossibility, then throwing all the players involved under the microscope: photographer, subject, audience and, of course, the medium itself.
Published by Des Palais, 2021
32 cm x 24 cm, 424 pages, new
ISBN 9789464590272
In October 2017, Depoorter met Agata at a strip club in Paris. Over the next three years, the women dove deep into a collaboration, creating a small alternative universe that served as a container for exploring the questions they each had about identity, performance and representation: Who is the true author of these images? Who is the real subject? Who is Agata? Who is Agata when she is photographed? Who is Bieke? Who is Bieke when she takes the photos? Why do these photos? What are the motives? Who is responsible for what?
The book tells both the story of a young woman who turns to a photographer to find meaning in her identity, and the story of a photographer who turns to a young woman to better understand the author of the photograph and himself. These intertwined narratives are told through a combination of images, letters and notes, but what defines the dialogue is the omnipresent reflex of self-awareness and self-reflection. The result is a project that never arrives at a conclusive truth, but highlights the slippery nature of truth in situations where power, responsibility and control are in constant flux.
Overall, Agata is a project that poses more questions than it offers answers, first acknowledging the well-known idea of the photographer as witness as a relative impossibility, then throwing all the players involved under the microscope: photographer, subject, audience and, of course, the medium itself.
Published by Des Palais, 2021
32 cm x 24 cm, 424 pages, new
ISBN 9789464590272
