POPVIEW Lex van Rossen Exhibition and Awards
An annual competition, award and exhibition which was set up to find and reward the best new European music photographer.
This year’s winner of the coveted Lex van Rossen Award and cash price of €2,500 is accomplished young Belgian photographer Tom Verbruggen. The accolade, which was awarded earlier in the year at The Eurosonic/Noorderslag Festival in Groningen, recognised Verbruggen’s talent for capturing impressive live silhouettes and atmospheric backstage portraits. In fact, his work is said to have reminded the judges of the great Dutch music photographer Anton Corbjin. These images along with the work of six commended finalists will be exhibited at Roundhouse, Camden from 2nd August until 10th September 2009.
Amongst the highlights on display in London, will be images taken by NME photographer Danny North, representing UK talent with his portfolio of shots on the road, at music festivals and in the studio. The work of other commended finalists include, the unobtrusive imagery of Belgian photographer Charlie de Keersmaecker; quirky journalistic shots taken by Dutch photographer Jordi Huisman and striking portraitures captured by Frenchman Julien Bourgeois. Also included are Finnish photographer Kalle Bjorklid’s riveting images of audience interaction and Danish photographer, Patrick Ryming’s documentation of the highs and lows of life on tour.
The European character of this award is underlined by the support of Rockarchive, the international collective for music photographers. Jill Furmanovsky, acclaimed rock photographer and founder of the archive, was invited to the Noordelicht Gallery in March to open the exhibition there and gave a talk about rock photography to delegates at the festival. She noted that “the standard at the PopView awards was awesome and inspiring. We had a lot of trouble picking just one winner”!
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Editor’s Note
Tom Verbruggen – Winner of the Lex Van Rossen Award 2009
Gent-born Tom Verbruggen was 22 years old when he got my first SLR camera. He has experimented with technique since then and has recently founded the Genthology and Antwology collective for music photographers. The idea behind these photographic archives is to capture and contribute to the local music scene by creating a chronicle of pictures online. His atmospheric imagery reminded the judges of the great music photographer Anton Corbjin.
Commended Finalists
Danny North
Danny North has been involved in the music business for a number of years – he played bass guitar in various bands, got involved in gig promotion and even managed a band. It was whilst managing this band that he really started getting interested in photography. Within months, he was out shooting more than ever and at the start of 2006, he was approached by the NME and decided to turn professional. Since then, he has shot commissions for the The Guardian and The Independent and regularly shoots for the UK magazines Rock Sound and Front. In November 2007, he became the Kaiser Chiefs official tour photographer and has completed two extensive UK tours with them so far.
Kalle Björklid
Kalle Björklid is a 28-year old semi-professional music photographer from Finland. His main areas of interest are concerts and documentary photography and his work has been published in a number of Finnish newspapers, music magazines, books, CD leaflets and DVD covers. He also works as an independent artist and exhibits regularly. While Björklid has photographed major international artists in big arenas and stadiums, his true passion is taking photographs in small dark clubs and documenting bands with a cult following.
Julien Bourgeouis
Julien Bourgeois discovered the art of photography in a darkroom when he was studying painting at Art College. He instinctively knew that this was his natural medium and joined the National Superior School of Photography (ENSP) in Arles where he won the first prize of The Broncolor Award for his use of light. He now lives in Paris working for a freelance portrait photographer for the likes of Le Monde, Liberation, Les Inrockuptibles, Rock & Folk and has most recently been recruited to work for UK magazine Clash. He also works with music labels such as Tôt ou Tard, Asthmatic Kitty, Full Time Hobby and K Records.
Danish photographer Patrick Ryming bought his first camera in 2001 and started taking photos of friends he knew in various bands. He was hired to do his first commercial photo-shoot in 2003 and moved to Copenhagen shortly afterwards to work as a freelance photographer for music magazines, record companies and bands. Patrick shoots all of his work on film, which he develops himself. His philosophy is to show his work the way it was shot in the camera. All his prints are shown in full-frame without any cropping and he does not retouch the shots.
Jordi Huisman
Photographer Jordi Huisman began his photography career in 2003 and quickly became a freelancer, working for small local newspapers and magazines. He studied at the Royal Academy for Visual Arts in The Hague, Netherlands but quit the studies in his 2nd year because he was so busy freelancing. In 2006, he began working on a series about the hip hop duo Pete Philly & Perquisite. Since then, he has completed an internship at one of the biggest newspapers in the Netherlands, Het Parool. He spent the early part of this year travelling through Japan working on a new project.
Charlie de Keersmaeker
Belgian photographer Charlie de Keersmaeker is a regular photographer for Focus Knack Magazine. He has chosen to defy the digital revolution and shoots with monochrome film.
About Lex van Rossen
The award is named after the famous Dutch music photographer Lex van Rossen, who unfortunately died at the age of 57 in February 2007. Lex worked for magazines and newspapers like OOR, NRC Handelsblad and Haarlems Dagblad and left an impressive archive of his images. He is considered to be one of the leading Dutch music photographers of his time. The PopView organisation, now in its second year, aims to try to provide a stimulus for young, European music photographers.
About Rockarchive
Following in the footsteps of the Magnum Picture Collective and inspired by the digital revolution, photographer Jill Furmanovsky registered a website called rockarchive.com in 1998. The idea behind it was to make her work and that of other rock photographers and visual artists, more accessible to fans and collectors. To launch this project, Jill selected 30 classic black and white images of major rock artists from her 30 year archive, to make into an edition of 30 darkroom prints. Edition 30/30/30 as it became known, was the first collection for an innovative and original project that now publishes more than 500 images by 50 photographers and art directors. The collective continues to grow and celebrated its 10th Anniversary in 1998.
Contacts
For further information /Use of images/Interviews
Evelyn Byrne evelyn[@]gmail.com ; Mob: + 353 86 1613 450
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