Ben De Vries

My photographs are a fusion of the realistic and the surreal, in which I use manipulations of light, shadow, and composition to create moments of stillness that can be simultaneously dreamy and unsettling. I seek out fleeting moments where the boundary between dream and reality blurs.
The photographs I create are not only a representation of the world as we know it, but also an invitation to escape to another, dreamy dimension. In capturing reality and surrealism in a single image, I attempt to capture precisely the elusive dream hidden within.
For me, a photographic work is created by combining multiple photos into a single new image. I take my photos while walking and observing. These photos are merged on the computer into a single new image, an image that does not exist in reality and cannot even exist. I create a new composition in which realism and surrealism flow into one another, resulting in an alienating image that raises questions, sometimes somewhat unsettling questions. The primary subject is not in the photograph; that is, in fact, the viewer of the photo. You yourself are that viewer. And you can unleash your own thoughts and feelings on that photo. No one else can touch that.

ilt.