Bart Coenaers · Greycard
I make portraits that do not try harder than they need to.
People, dogs and the bond between them. In black and white, with attention to light, posture and what becomes visible on its own.
Bart Coenaers · Photographer
Approach
Look first.
Photograph second.
I am interested in the point at which someone is no longer thinking about the camera. With a dog this is often even clearer: once it no longer needs to respond, its own posture returns.
I direct when it helps and step back when that works better. Light, composition and technique should be right, but they should never take over the portrait.
I work calmly and without using the clock as the measure of the commission. Not to be slow for its own sake, but to leave enough room for an image that genuinely shows something of the person, the dog or the bond between them.
A portrait does not need to explain very much.
About the work
Black and white is not an effect I add afterwards. While photographing I am already looking at tone, skin, fur, shadow and form.
Colour disappears so that other things can carry more weight.
I photograph people and dogs in much the same way: with attention to character rather than pose.
When they are together in the frame, I look at the small things that make their bond visible: a hand, a look, the distance between two bodies.
After the photography comes the second part of the work. We select what is strong enough to exist beyond a screen.
Then we consider size, paper, mount, frame and where the work will live. For me, a Greycard portrait is only finished when that physical form is right too.
A Greycard Commission
From conversation to
artwork on the wall.
The end point is not a folder of files. It is an image that has found its place.
Begin here
A portrait begins
with a conversation.
Tell me who or what you would like to have photographed and why that image matters.