It’s a kind of magic

I assumed Patrick Van den Branden is a professional photographer for three reasons. The first was that his pictures are so good, the second is that he has a lot of them, and the third was that the sort of pictures he takes require an enormous investment of time and effort. I suppose reason three should have made me question my assumption, as professional photographers don’t usually have the kind of time that allows them to experiment with chemical formula or the sort of processes that involve a significant risk that the result may not be as intended – if an image appears at all.

The Belgian photographer, in fact, does have a real job. Patrick works in the Belgian National Bank as a photographer for the internal staff magazine – so I was right in a way. The work he does there, however, is a thousand miles away from that which he shoots in his free time. For work he uses digital equipment to deliver results in double-quick time; in his own photography, however, time almost stands still.

Patrick specialises in ancient forms of photography using large-format cameras, chemicals and alternative processes. Some of the pictures shown on these pages are digital in origin, but the photodiodes are used as a means to an end that involves printing techniques as old as photography itself. Other images here are shot with wet emulsion on glass, on sheet film and on photographic paper, but all were made for the love of the effects that can be achieved when you try something different and pursue something unique.

From pixels to crystals

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