M HKA Ensembles

Other, 50 x 50 cm.

Collection: (c) Dirk Braeckman, Courtesy Zeno X Gallery, Antwerpen.

From 1992 onwards Braeckman creates “portraits” in which the gaze is covered or averted. This work marks the beginning of this new strategy. This relatively small photograph shows a close up of the back of a woman’s head. By averting the model’s gaze, the sitter is depersonalised and the image is ‘un-portrayed’. The effect creates a more abstract, more suggestive and less descriptive image. After creating E-101-92, Braeckman goes on to make a photo series of a half-naked woman, whose face is covered by her long hair.

For these series, Braeckman first uses a code as a title. Since then, the titles of Braeckman’s photographic work consist of letters and numbers. These codes can refer to cities, dates, classification numbers of people who were present when the photo was taken.