yesterday, it was exactly one year since Alexandra Boulat (war photographer and co-founder of the VII Photo Agency) passed away due to a brain aneurysm… i can actually remember hearing that sad news as if it happened yesterday. unbelievable how fast time flies by these last few years! :-/

you can check out some of her work on the following links:

VII: Women In Middle East
Time: Capturing Gaza’s Hell
Alexandra Boulat: A Tribute

 

anyways… today there’s been a general strike in Belgium, so i thought… why not update my blog with photos of the manifestations i’ve witnessed in the past year. i have to warn you.. it’s a pretty lengthy post, so hang in there ;) i think many of the pictures included are total rubbish, but hey… it’s a blog so i can post more pictures here than i actually like and maybe some of you even like ‘em…

all pictures are taken with my bessa r3m(nokton 40/1.4) or my nikon fm2n(nikkor 50/1.8). film used: tri-x(in xtol 1:1). i had a lab scan my negs so don’t expect great image quality.

 

the first manifestation took place on september 11th 2007(yeah.. 9/11) in Brussels, where the right-wing Flemish nationalist party “Vlaams Belang” wanted to protest against the “Islamisation of Europe”. the mayor of Brussels had banned the protest, but Vlaams Belang still tried to protest which led to 200 protesters being nearly immediately arrested. unfortunately… due to my train being late, i actually missed all the action so nothing interesting to see there for me…

… also because the place was way too crowded with journalists…

 

i did see Hugo (fucking) Coveliers *ugghh* :-/

 

journalists, journalists and journalists!

 

the aftermath.

 

 

afterwards i got into a discussion with two women. we ended up in a pub and had a very, very, very long discussion about Belgian politics. One of the women had a Belgian nationality but was originally from Congo, so that made the discussion even more interesting. ’twas nice!

 

 

about a month later, i went to an anti-fascism demonstration(more my cup of tea :-D) in Brughes.

 

i’ll translate:

“stop fascistic violence
everything that separates us, weakens us
jobs, no racism”

 

many young “commies” in Brughes :-D

 

 

 

 

on the move…

 

 

trying to sell left-wing propaganda to people passing by.

 

Ché

 

 

absolutely one of my favourite pictures of this manifestation! she was yelling through that megaphone. i had just setup my camera. she looked back, looked at me for a spare second and *click*. luckily i was fast enough to have the focus (nearly) spot on manually…

 

i just love all these different expressions on their faces; the guy with the “nie wieder faschismus” sign, the guy looking at the sky, …

 

 

CHÉnge the world…

 

 

 

 

 

a few weeks later, i was walking through Brussels and (accidentally) ran into a protest against the PKK and against terror and violence in general. in the beginning, i didn’t really felt comfortable. i was quite impressed by those thousands of Turkish people singing and praying… and there i stood “white” guy with my camera’s :’ ) but as i started taking pictures i felt more comfortable and after a while people even started to ask me to have their picture taken(and their typical question afterwards: “for what newspaper are you working? when will this photo be in the newspapers?” :-D many people asked me that. apparently i have the photojournalist looks haha).

 

gotta love the eye contact!

 

enjoying the fag

 

 

 

“als ik u pak, eet ik u op!” :’ )

 

he definitely wanted to be in the “newspapers” :-D

 

she was quite shy and she was already making her move to run away, so i had to be fast… too bad it’s waaaaay out of focus. in such cases autofocus could be handy. oh well…

 

 

he was definitely enjoying himself.

 

 

 

… and some more people who wanted to be in the “newspapers”.

 

 

later on, things got out of hand somehow and the police had to intervene. i’m still wondering why i have taken more time to photograph these guys. i have exactly one frame of them :-/

 

he wasn’t too happy i guess…

 

 

next up is a manifestation for the equality of women in Iran/Afghanistan.

 

 

 

these lads asked me to have their picture taken and so i did…

 

 

he was quite shy i guess… i tried to photograph him several times and almost every time he was fast enough to hide his face behind that sign.

 

“look! that guy’s taking pictures. let’s put up our (out of focus) retarded faces”

 

 

he didn’t quite understand what was going on…

 

… and here, one was curious about what was going on and the other was curious about what i was doing :-p

 

believe it or not… a photo in color! i was testing out some slide film(Kodak Elitechrome) with my Bessa and a gigantic Metz CL-4 flash attached to it. the colors/sharpness aren’t very representable as i scanned the slide with a friend’s crappy scanner.

too bad there’s a guy with a gigantic camera in the background staring at me. i think he didn’t quite get it why i was using a “stupid toy camera” and attached a gigantic flash to it haha :” )

 

 

still one manifestation to go: the unity of Belgium. it was a protest against the failure of the Belgian politicians to form a new government. Meanwhile they still haven’t solved all problems. Tsjeven… :-/

 

don’t know why, but they drew my attention :’ )

 

 

even the war veterans were doing their fair share…

 

…as well as the (out of focus) white hairy unidentified species

 

some had seen the light apparently…

 

a Belgium afro wig. too bad this picture isn’t in color

 

 

 

 

op naar het Jubelpark!

 

guarding the flag.

 

one happy camper texting a message to the home front?!

 

 

 

 

singin’ the Brabançonne (the Belgian national anthem) together.
do notice the woman’s “what the fuck man! i’m eating”-face on the right!

 

zelfs zwarte piet was van de partij…

 

 

still don’t know what these guys were trying to achieve.

 

 

…and the summary of it all:
“three languages, one soul, one Belgium”

 

 

there… this post has come to an end. i hope you’ve enjoyed it! ;)

 

cheers,
bert