Photo Journal Monday: Etienne Buyse

American Flag © Etienne Buyse

Project: Through the American Flag

I like frontal and flat images. Flat like surfaces, without any illusion of depth. In order to achieve this effect, I photograph people and objects through glass or a grid. In this way the third dimension disappears. Then, through this flatness, a parallel world appears.

In my own world, straight lines impose order on chaos, people and places are anonymous, and the colors bright. Reality becomes abstract and graphic, and my mind drifts there silently and finds peace.

Unemployed © Etienne Buyse

Police © Etienne Buyse

Sunday morning © Etienne Buyse

In Through the American Flag, after a long Down Time, finally I continue on my way. New York, April 2018. I roam the city, sitting alone at the back of a municipal bus. On the rear side windows at the back of the bus, the windows are covered with a micro-perforated adhesive: the American Flag. Through it, by bus, over a period of several days I observe the city: the American Flag, like a sieve, simplifies and enchants it. Despite the colors, solitude and melancholy seep through it.

One car two trucks © Etienne Buyse

At the street corner © Etienne Buyse

At the red light © Etienne Buyse

But is this really New York? 

And, conversely, is it that how, flattened and filtered of all complexity, that Americans see the world?

Worker © Etienne Buyse

Cash machine © Etienne Buyse

To the store © Etienne Buyse

For more information about Etienne Buyse, click here.