Daniel Decot is a freelance Belgian Photographer based in Mons (Belgium).
His work is regularly shown in Art galleries and published in some international magazines.
My quest ? ... Foremost, catch a « simple » picture, the simpler the better.
I like capturing people whenever possible in their home place.
I prefer the release during a session so I give privilege to loosening over acting.
« Don't do, don't act, don't pose, do nothing ». No spectacular, no acting, no transgression, no message … but just a look, a presence, the raw drawing of a gesture, a growing thought.
An intense yet discreet emotion, nearly mute and blind which tends to reveal a true moment, unutterable, subtle and far away from bashing clichés and sensationalism.
A meeting, some shared instants.
A caring look from my ends.
A deeper look on the inside from yours.
My approach based on a certain neutrality emphasizes the mystery, creating impressionistic instants leaving to the audience the possibility to picture its own story.
Whilst keeping classic, I try to stay away from true crude realism to avoid anchoring my pictures in a social or psychological typology and continuously stretch to reach a poetic realism alike the one of the 1930's- 40's movies (Renoir, Carné/Prévert) and their transfiguration of the reality.
Working with natural daylight, (ea.: available light) and inside, my pictures swing between two worlds.
That of a contrasted Black & White alike the one of the German expressionism movement which affects space dramatically, some Chiaroscuro from which faces and shadow-striped bodies strive to hide or escape.
And another tainted world, a zone with diffuse and glowing light, a Sfumato in the subtle gray scale where individual finds their way, eventually melting within.
In both cases, the day-to-day ceases to exist, the momentum suspends its time.
A face, a look, a body, a room.
Once they have taken off their clothes, st ripped their body of a social identity, there are women, men, facing themselves, exposed in what they have essential. Revealed.
My personae have a link with those of Edward Hopper's paintings, for being solitary, melancholic, mute and wholly-engrossed in their thoughts, locked within, alone and nude, hidden but exposed, strong and fragile, facing a window letting the light floating in and suggests the possibility of an infinite world lying behind, on the other side.
And like always, wriggling from famous artists to anonymous people, swinging from boxers to geeks, oscillating from straight managers to tattooed bikers, …trying to suggest what unites us in our differences, and shedding light on our identities and resemblances through our skin grains, up to the most intimate as I would like that the audience seizes the humanity beyond the characters.
In the media (press & TV):
« The Advocate » (By Christopher Harrity) :
The images of Belgian photographer Daniel Decot stare back at us with a laser gaze from their inky-dark spaces and blinding white environments. That he has an extensive background in theater and performance comes as no surprise.
His next stop: Miami this month to continue his work with local tattooed people, and MARS (Mons ARts de la Scène) gave him carte blanche for his next project, «Boxing Days” (the results of three years following and shooting boxers in Belgium), mixing photos exhibition and demonstrations of boxing by the Martinez Boxing Club.
More at: https://www.advocate.com/photography/2017/11/28/42-photos-men-raw-and-solitary
“My Gay Toronto” (By Drew Rowsome) :
"The photos created by Daniel Decot appear straightforward, infused with a naturalistic eroticism that leaps off the page. But as the play of light and dark draws one in, there is a startling effect of intimacy, of a connection being communicated"
More at: http://www.mygaytoronto.com/mobile/go/201706.pdf
“Modellenland”
https://www.yumpu.com/nl/embed/view/Hy8tRlGQfNnUhxbM
(from page 156 to 167)
“L'Invitation”
RTBf, belgian television, TV show "The Invitation" about an artist meeting his audience.
Daniel Decot meets 2 randomly selected people, work with them in his and in their place ...
more at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMpwCIN1MwI
“La Minute de l'Artiste”
TéléMB TV show "One minute with one artist" with photographer Daniel Decot for his exhibitionn at the gallery "Pop Up" in Mons ("Mons, Cultural Capitale 2015").
https://www.telemb.be/la-minute-de-l-artiste-daniel-decot_d_15888.html